This book holds a wonderful collection of mining terms. It brings together the words spoken by miners of the North East pits, how these words relate to the wider language of the region and its literature of story and song.

As entertaining as it is informative, this dictionary offers records and explanations of a northern English dialect. The research presents information about words that go back as far as the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings as well as those present in today's vernacular. Ideal for anyone interested in English etymology, this reference is thorough and essential.

An “intelligent, disturbing slice of noir” that portrays the man who derailed the police investigation into the Yorkshire Ripper (The Guardian). In this provocative novel, Mark Blacklock portrays the true and complex history of John Humble, aka Wearside Jack, the Ripper Hoaxer, a timewaster and criminal, sympathetic and revolting, the man hidden by a wall of words, a fiction-spinner worthy of textual analysis. In this remarkable work, John Humble leads the reader into an allusive, elusive labyrinth of interpretations, simultaneously hoodwinking and revealing. I’m Jack is a riveting novel about truth, lies, prison and shame. It is also a profound and furious love letter to Sunderland. It is a puzzle, a hoax, a multi-voice portrait and a virtuoso assemblage of textual elements. I’m Jack announces the arrival of a radically talented and innovative novelist. “A gripping study in self-invention—and, ultimately, self-erasure.”—Tom McCarthy, author of the Man Booker Prize finalists, Satin Island and C “Here are dark telegrams from an expertly realized otherness that is Sunderland. Spare. Swift. Smart. And dangerous. Carrying us through maps of shame to rescue a convincing fiction of the past from its sullen entropy.”—Iain Sinclair, award-winning author of The Last London “A chilling debut . . . An audacious exercise in mimicry . . . Its tone is mischievous, with a vein of dark, crafty humor—though the overall effect is somber. Blacklock’s Humble is impossible to like; yet by the end it is almost impossible not to feel sorry for him.”—Financial Times “A deftly executed ventriloquist act, it’s anchored in the true story of notorious hoaxer John Humble.”—Observer

English as spoken in the north of England has a rich social and cultural history; however it has often been neglected by historical linguists, whose research has focused largely on the development of 'Standard English'. In this groundbreaking, alternative account of the history of English, Northern English takes centre stage for the first time. Emphasising its richness and variety, the book places northern speech and culture in the context of identity, iconography, mental maps, boundaries and marginalisation. It reassesses the role of Northern English in the development of Modern Standard English, draws some pioneering conclusions about the future of Northern English, and considers the origins of the many images and stereotypes surrounding northerners and their speech. Numerous maps, and a useful index of northern English words and pronunciations, are included. Innovative and original, Northern English will be welcomed by all those interested in the history and regional diversity of English.

This book relies on a multidisciplinary approach that allows the authors to bear witness to the realities and representations of various urban environments in the English-speaking world in complementary ways. They deal with the motifs of urban identity and expression from several methodological and theoretical perspectives (sociolinguistics, soundscapes, architecture, stylistics, literature). This book analyses the representations of and the changes in urban identity through different forms of linguistic and artistic expression associated with several English-speaking towns and cities. The protagonists are, in order of appearance, Sydney, Melbourne, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, Houghton-le-Spring, Kolkata, New York City, London, Sheffield, Aberdeen, Dublin and Edinburg. Cet ouvrage s’appuie sur une approche pluridisciplinaire qui permet de rendre compte des réalités et des représentations d’environnements urbains anglophones de manière complémentaire. Les auteurs abordent la question de l’identité et de l’expression urbaine selon des perspectives méthodologiques et théoriques diverses (sociolinguistique, environnement sonore, architecture, stylistique, littérature). L’ouvrage vise à rendre compte des représentations et des mutations identitaires des villes anglophones à travers des modes d’expression linguistiques et artistiques qui leur sont propres. Les protagonistes sont, par ordre d’apparition, Sydney, Melbourne, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, Houghton-le-Spring, Kolkata, New York, Londres, Sheffield, Aberdeen, Dublin et Édimbourg.

Why is the North East the most distinctive region of England? Where do the stereotypes about North Easterners come from, and why are they so often misunderstood? In this wideranging new history of the people of North East England, Dan Jackson explores the deep roots of Northumbrian culture--hard work and heavy drinking, sociability and sentimentality, militarism and masculinity--in centuries of border warfare and dangerous and demanding work in industry, at sea and underground. He explains how the landscape and architecture of the North East explains so much about the people who have lived there, and how a 'Northumbrian Enlightenment' emerged from this most literate part of England, leading to a catalogue of inventions that changed the world, from the locomotive to the lightbulb. Jackson's Northumbrian journey reaches right to the present day, as this remarkable region finds itself caught between an indifferent south and a newly assertive Scotland. Covering everything from the Venerable Bede and the prince-bishops of Durham to Viz and Geordie Shore, this vital new history makes sense of a part of England facing an uncertain future, but whose people remain as distinctive as ever.

A Passionate, Profoundly Funny First Novel from "the Best Literary Critic of His Generation" (Adam Begley, Financial Times) Thomas Bunting, the charming, chaotic, and deeply untruthful narrator of James Wood's wonderful first novel, is in despair. His marriage is disintegrating and his academic career is in ruins: instead of completing his philosophy Ph.D. (still unfinished after seven years), he is secretly writing what he hopes will be his masterwork, a vast atheistic project he has privately entitled "The Book Against God." But when his father suddenly falls ill, Thomas returns to the tiny village in the north of England where he grew up and where his father still works as a parish priest. There, Thomas hopes, he may finally be able to communicate honestly with his father, a brilliant and formidable Christian example, and sort out his own wayward life. But Thomas is a chronic liar as well as an atheist, and he finds, instead, that once at home he soon reverts to the evasive patterns of his childhood years—with disastrous results. The story of a husband and wife, a father and son, faith and disbelief, and a hero who couldn't tell the truth if his life depended on it, The Book Against God is at once hilarious and poignant; it introduces an original comic voice—edgy, elegiac, lyrical, and indignant—and, in the irrepressible Thomas Bunting, one of the strangest philosophers in contemporary fiction.

Where de yea belang?brings together the distinctive vocabulary of the North East dialect. "Abackabeyont, bait-poke, cracket, drucken, etten, fettle, guissie pigs, lonnin, marra, nyen, plote, queen-cat, reckling, skinch, tew, upcast, vine, willok, yem, zookers!" If you enjoy finding out about dialect words – how and where and when they were used – and where they came from – this is the best guide to help you explore the world of North East dialect. Until the 20th century, dialect was a marker of economic, social and cultural change. We know that the North East maritime connections with the Dutch led to the introduction of many 'new' words. The Scottish influence of the keelmen (fisherman) on the Tyne and their effect on local language was much more radical. Although the Tyneside dialect and identity and this way of speaking is fast waning, the popularity of discovering this language and dialect shows there is still a great interest in the languages and dialect of the past. The late Bill Griffiths (1948–2007)was an extraordinary writer and poet: radical, experimental and scholarly, but also had a great sense of humour. He was a wonderful champion of the North East, its people and heritage. Born in Middlesex, he read history before graduating in 1969. Bill ran his own independent press and published political pamphlets and essays on the arts and poetry. After gaining a PhD in Old English he fled London and settled in Seaham where he embraced the northern way of life. 'He was also a scholar of Old English and dialect who know how to make his work accessible. Private and uncompetitive, he was at least these things: poet, archivist, scholar, translator, prison-rights campaigner, pianist, historian, curator, performer, editor, short-story writer, essayist, teacher, book-maker and lyricist. The Saturday before he died, Bill discharged himself from hospital to host the Dialect Day at the Morden Tower in Newcastle upon Tyne. He died as he lived: cataloguing, awarding Best Dialect prizes, opera on his radio, the poetry paramount.' Obituary, The Independent, 20 September 2007.

In 1939, Kay Jeynes, a lively, ambitious young working-class woman, goes to work for the only Japanese businessman in town, the elderly, wealthy, Oxford-educated Mr. Miyashita. Despite differences in their age, race, and class, a friendship develops between them in the peaceful vacuum of Mr. Miyashita’s office. But outside, on the city streets, a dark chapter in North American history is taking shape. As war looms, relations between Canada and Japan grow steadily worse. Travel outside North America becomes impossible for Mr. Miyashita, so he asks Kay to cross the Pacific Ocean, even as the Imperial Navy is manoeuvring into position for the attack on Pearl Harbor. He sends her to Hong Kong on the famous Pan American Clipper to collect a precious family heirloom. On this journey, Kay commits some seemingly small sins of omission. But in the paranoid climate of the times, these little white lies put Mr. Miyashita at risk of being arrested as a spy. Told through the eyes of an older Kay, and set during the turbulent and racially charged times of the Second World War, Flying Time is a triumphant story of love and adventure, the impetuosity of youth and the regrets of age.

With enormous enthusiasm for the language of ordinary northerners, this scenic portrait of coastal peoples combines history, etymology, and recollections to record a folk culture that strives to survive against current worldwide trends of uniformity. The examination delves deep into the boat and fishing traditions that shape this small angler community, including smuggling, the scenery, and the surrounding wildlife. The increasing threat that globalization poses to these sea populations makes this an important preservation - as well as an excellent source of factual information and reference material about those who live on the North Sea.