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NORFOLK
DIALECT BOOKS
BOOKS
WRITTEN about
and in the Norfolk Dialect remain extremely popular, although
several have been long out of print. It is worth hunting round
the shelves of secondhand bookshops in search of them, while
libraries are always ready to help. Here is a list of recommended
reading, by no means comprehensive but a useful starting point
for any enthusiasts.
Michael
Brindid; I Din’t Say Nothin’! – Norfolk
dialect letters to the Eastern Daily Press, 1995, and
I Din’t Say Nothin’ Ag’in! 1998, both
published by
M Brindid and produced by Jim Baldwin, Fakenham.
Broad
Norfolk; being a series of articles and letters reprinted
from the Eastern Daily Press. Published 1893 by Norfolk
News Co., Norwich, editor Harry Cozens-Hardy.
Tony
Clarke; Mighta Bin Wuss, tales of the Boy Jimma, Nostalgia
Publications, 1998, and Thass A Rum Ow Job, more tales
of the Boy Jimma, Nostalgia Publications, 1999.
W
N Dew; A Dyshe of Norfolk Dumplings. First published
in 1898 by Jarrold Publishers. Republished 1973.
Ida
Fenn; Tales of a Countryman – stories of the Boy
Jimma in Norfolk dialect. Published 1973 by Geo R Reeve Ltd,
Wymondham.
Robert
Forby; The Vocabulary of East Anglia. Two volumes originally
published in 1830. Reprinted 1970 by Latimer Trend & Co.
Ltd.
Eric
Fowler (who wrote under the pseudonym of Jonathan Mardle);
Broad Norfolk, Written by the readers of the Eastern
Daily Press, 21 January –
19 March, 1949. Published 1949. Broad Norfolk published
in 1973 by Wensum Books of Norwich.
Edward
Gillett; The Song of Solomon in the Norfolk Dialect.
From the authorised English Version. First printed 1861, published
1862 by Thew, King's Lynn. Republished 1993 by Larks Press,
Guist Bottom, East Dereham.
Sidney
Grapes; The Boy John Letters. First published in volume
form by Norfolk News Co. 1958. Published by Wensum Books,
1974.
Lilias
Rider Haggard (Edited); I Walked By Night, being the
life and history of the King of the Norfolk Poachers. First
published in 1935 by Nicholson and Watson, London. She also
edited The Rabbit Skin Cap, a tale of a Norfolk countryman’s
youth. First published 1939. Reprinted by the Norfolk Library,
1974, 1975, 1976.
John
Kett; three volumes of dialect poems; Tha’s a Rum’un,
Bor, 1973, Tha’s a Rum’un Tew, published
in 1973 by Baron Publishing, Woodbridge, and Watcher Bor
published by Wensum Books, 1979.
Robert
Malster; The Mardler’s Companion, a Dictionary of
East Anglian Dialect, Malthouse Press, 1999.
Mary
Mann; The Fields of Dulditch, first published in 1902.
Reissued 1976 by Boydell Press, Ipswich, and Tales of Victorian
Norfolk, published by Morrow and Co., Bungay, 1991.
John
Greaves Nall; Glossary of the Dialect and Provincialisms
of East Anglia, originally published in 1866 by Longmans,
Green, Reeder and Dyer, London.
Old
Barney; A series of broadcasts on BBC Radio Norfolk
in three volumes edited by Keith Skipper: Dew Yew Keep
a' Troshin', 1984, Down at the Datty Duck, 1985,
and Dunt Fergit Ter Hevver Larf, 1986. All published
by Jim Baldwin, Fakenham.
Colin
Riches; Bible stories in the Norfolk dialect, Dew Yew Lissen
Hare, published 1975 by George Nobbs Publishing, and Orl
Bewtiful an’ New, published 1978 by F Crowe &
Sons, Ltd., Norwich.
Walter
Rye; Glossary of Words Used in East Anglia, published
1895 for the English Dialect Society by Henry Frowde, Oxford
University Press.
Keith
Skipper; The Norfolk Companion, Jim Baldwin Publishing,
1994, Larn Yarself Norfolk, a comprehensive guide to
the Norfolk Dialect, Nostalgia Publications, 1996, Hev
Yew Gotta Loight, Boy?, the life and lyrics of Allan Smethurst,
The Singing Postman, Countryside Books, 2001.
James
Spilling; Giles’ Trip to London, first published
by Jarrold Publishing, 1872. Facsimile edition in 1998.
B
Knyvet Wilson; Norfolk Tales and Memories, published
1930, More Norfolk Tales and Memories, 1931, both published
by Jarrold and Sons Ltd.
Arnold
Wesker; The Wesker Trilogy, including Roots
(set in Norfolk) published 1984 by Penguin Books Ltd., Harmondsworth,
Middlesex.
There
are many dialect articles to be culled from old copies of
both the Norfolk Magazine and the East Anglian Magazine.
For many years Maurice Woods contributed Harbert’s
News from Dumpton, to the Norwich Mercury series
of weekly newspapers. In more recent times, Michael Brindid
contributed letters in the Boy John tradition to the
EDP. This mantle has now been passed to The Gal
Liza, whose dialect offering appears at the start of each
month.
List
compiled by Keith Skipper
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