The West Country

Author: John Payne
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited
ISBN: 1908493518
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 297

Book Description
The English West Country is a land of exceptional landscapes: many miles of wild, unspoilt coastline and vast expanses of wild moorland; great cities such as Exeter, Plymouth, Bath and Bristol; and market towns, villages and hamlets. Farming, mining, quarrying, fishing and trade are the traditional industries of the counties of Wiltshire, Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall. On one level, the West Country is the most English of all English regions, home of clotted cream, thatch, church spires, folksong, hobby horses and Cecil Sharp. Yet the area was trading with Mediterranean Europe before the Romans. For many years Bristol was the centre of the slave trade, and many of its great mansions were built on the proceeds of slavery. Great swathes of land in Dorset, Wiltshire and Devon are still used by the military and are off-bounds to visitors. And within the West Country is the special case of Celtic Cornwall, and the even more remote Isles of Scilly. People lived in the West Country long before Britain, or England, were invented. From the great stone circles of Avebury and Stonehenge in Wiltshire to the menhirs of Cornwall, and the wealth of prehistoric remains on the Isles of Scilly, this has always been an inhabited landscape, crafted by men and women working closely with nature and natural forces. John Payne explores this culturally rich and varied region, revealing many facets of its distinctive and much-loved identity.

West Country English

Author: Graeme Davis
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780902920811
Category : English language
Languages : en
Pages : 35

Book Description

English Romantic Writers and the West Country

Author: N. Roe
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230281451
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 335

Book Description
Long confounded with a monolithic British entity or misrepresented as 'Lakers' and 'Cockneys', the diverse regional forms of 'English Romanticism' are ripe for reassessment. Ranging west of a line between the Wye at Tintern and Jane Austen's Chawton, this book offers a first reconfiguration of Romantic culture in terms of English regional identity.

English – One Tongue, Many Voices

Author: Jan Svartvik
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230596169
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 299

Book Description
This is the fully revised and expanded second edition of English - One Tongue, Many Voices, a book by three internationally distinguished English language scholars who tell the fascinating, improbable saga of English in time and space. Chapters trace the history of the language from its obscure beginnings over 1500 years ago as a collection of dialects spoken by marauding, illiterate tribes. They show how the geographical spread of the language in its increasing diversity has made English into an international language of unprecedented range and variety. The authors examine the present state of English as a global language and the problems, pressures and uncertainties of its future, online and offline. They argue that, in spite of the amazing variety and plurality of English, it remains a single language.

Music in the West Country

Author: Stephen Banfield
Publisher: Music in Britain
ISBN: 9781783272730
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 476

Book Description
The first regional history of music in England.

Pronouncing Shakespeare

Author: David Crystal
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108466699
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 213

Book Description
How did Shakespeare's plays sound when they were originally performed? How can we know, and could the original pronunciation ever be recreated? David Crystal recounts and reflects on Shakespeare's Globe's experiment with original pronunciation.

Part Troll

Author: Bill Bailey
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781860512575
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Book Description
Fresh from the latest series of the critically acclaimed Black Books, co starring label mate Dylan Moran, Bill starts his new UK tour on May 3rd. It runs until the middle of July. Reflecting Bill's growing popularity, it is his biggest tour so far. He has now added a second date at the Hammersmith Apollo. That's the price you pay for being the funniest person on Never Mind The Buzzcocks! Part Troll was recorded at London's Wyndhams Theatre and is without question the work of a comedy genius. You have been warned!

West Midlands English

Author: Urszula Clark
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 0748685820
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Book Description
This volume focuses on the closely allied yet differing linguistic varieties of Birmingham and its immediate neighbour to the west, the industrial heartland of the Black Country. It provides a clear description of the structure of the linguistic varieties

Dorset Pilgrims

Author: Frank Thistlethwaite
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 320

Book Description

Tracing Your West Country Ancestors

Author: Kirsty Gray
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1783376619
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 196

Book Description
This book is an essential handbook for those researching their ancestry in the counties of Cornwall, Devon and Somerset and the city of Bristol. It begins with an introduction to the identity of The West Country, its geography and history over the centuries. It then guides family historians through the wealth of historical records available both online and in archives and libraries in order to add the flesh to the bones of the names of ancestors on their family trees.West Country expert Kirsty Gray highlights fascinating details that can be uncovered about the places where our ancestors lived, their occupations and the distinctive features, identity and character of the West Country itself. She provides case studies of some notable individuals from the counties as well as records of those individuals who never hit the headlines.This practical and informative guide is a must have for readers wishing to find out more about all aspects of life in this area of England.