
Neither Nowt Nor Summat: In search of the meaning of Yorkshire (Paperback)
Ian McMillan (author)Published: 02/06/2016
I'm going to define the essence of this sprawling place as best I can. I'm going to start here, in this village, and radiate out like a ripple in a pond. I don't want to go to the obvious places, either; I want to be like a bus driver on my first morning on the job, getting gloriously lost, turning up where I shouldn't. I'm going to confirm or deny the cliches, holding them up to see where the light gets in. Yorkshire people are tight. Yorkshire people are arrogant. Yorkshire people eat a Yorkshire pudding before every meal. Yorkshire people solder a t' before every word they use...
If there were such a thing as a professional Yorkshireman, Ian McMillan would be it. He's regularly consulted as a home-grown expert, and southerners comment archly on his 'fruity Yorkshire brogue'. But he has been keeping a secret. His dad was from Lanarkshire, Scotland, making him, as he puts it, only 'half tyke'. So Ian is worried; is he Yorkshire enough?
To try to understand what this means Ian embarks on a journey around the county, starting in the village has lived in his entire life. With contributions from the Cudworth Probus Club, a kazoo playing train guard, Mad Geoff the barber and four Saddleworth council workers looking for a mattress, Ian tries to discover what lies at the heart of Britain's most distinct county and its people, as well as finding out whether the Yorkshire Pudding is worthy of becoming a UNESCO Intangible Heritage Site, if Harrogate is really, really, in Yorkshire and, of course, who knocks up the knocker up?
Publisher: Ebury Publishing
ISBN: 9780091959968
Number of pages: 352
Weight: 239 g
Dimensions: 198 x 126 x 21 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
A force of nature * Guardian *
Inching towards the status of a national treasure -- Andy Kershaw
World-class - one of today's greatest poetry performers -- Carol Ann Duffy
With McMillan, you feel a draught coming from the blast of fresh air blowing through the dusty cobwebs that festoon most literary programmes -- Sue Arnold * Observer *
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