Join us on a literary world trip!
Add this book to bookshelf
Grey
Write a new comment Default profile 50px
Grey
Subscribe to read the full book or read the first pages for free!
I want to read the book!
All characters reduced
Spake - Dialect and Voices from the West Midlands - cover

Spake - Dialect and Voices from the West Midlands

Jonathan Davidson, Urszula Clark

Publisher: Nine Arches Press

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

Summary

"Examining regional accents and our attitudes to them are a way of peering into Britain's soul. I can't wait for this book" – Sathnam Sanghera
Spake: Dialect and Voices from the West Midlands with contributions from Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders), Julie Walters, Liz Berry and many of the regions best known writers.
Spake is a love letter to the West Midlands voice and a challenge to the preconceptions and prejudices that abound about dialect and non-standard English. Much maligned, frequently overlooked or simply left out altogether: the English West Midlands has for decades been diminished in the national conversation - and with it, the rich dialects and voices of the region are often misunderstood, ignored or worse – ridiculed and mocked. But who's to say that the way we 'spake' isn't every bit as vital and precious a part of the landscape as other accents and dialects?
This anthology features contemporary writing that draws upon dialect in ways that explore the potential of the narrative and poetic voice, bringing to life the silent histories and harsh realities of a vanishing working-class way of life in what was once Britain's industrial heartland. From contemporary re-imaginings of the interwar decades in Steven Knight's TV series Peaky Blinders to Liz Berry's prize-winning poetry and up and coming new talent, this book celebrates and gives voice to experiences rooted in the region that have largely lain at the margins.
Available since: 09/19/2019.
Print length: 120 pages.

Other books that might interest you

  • Entwined: Essays on Polyamory and Creating Home - cover

    Entwined: Essays on Polyamory...

    Alex Alberto

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    In a series of genre-blending essays read by the author, Entwined tells the story of Alex Alberto’s decade-long polyamorous journey toward a new kind of family. 
In these essays, Alex attempts to build two committed relationships at once when no one involved has done this before; develops a powerful bond with the woman their partner loves; sits through a tense Thanksgiving Dinner with religious in-laws; questions the need for rules and hierarchy in their relationships; experiences the intensity of a triad; wrestles with the fragility baked into the nuclear family after their father’s stroke; and explores their queerness and gender identity in English, in New York, and struggles to reconcile their newfound self in their native French-Canadian language and culture. 
Entwined explores the fuzzy lines between friendship, romance, and family with various essay forms, including a play, an advice column, and a love letter. Yes, there are challenges, but rather than wallowing in the throes of jealousy, this memoir celebrates the hard work of creating a love life that resists conventional narratives. 
-------- 
WHAT EARLY READERS SAY ABOUT ENTWINED: 
"Entwined is a goddamn bible for poly-curious people." 
—Chloe Caldwell (she/her), 37, questioning 
"Entwined is about the desire to create a life outside of capitalism, heteronormativity, and the patriarchy." 
—Samantha Paige Rosen (she/her), 33, queer and monogamous 
"Entwined had me captivated from start to finish. It will no doubt influence my approach to romance and family." 
—Rio C. (she/her), 21, queer, trans, and curious about polyamory 
"I laughed, cried, and felt my heart fill the fuck up." 
— Dan D. (they), 36, queer and newly navigating non-monogamy within a lifelong partnership.
    Show book
  • Victoria Crosses on the Western Front: August 1914–April 1915 - Mons to Hill 60 - cover

    Victoria Crosses on the Western...

    Paul Oldfield

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    The research for this book commenced in 1988 while the author was serving in the Army. In the years since, numerous sources have been consulted, but career imperatives left insufficient time to complete the project until retirement from the military. In the past the author spent many days on the First and Second World War battlefields wondering precisely where the Victoria Cross actions took place. He resolved to find out.The book is designed for the armchair reader as much as the battlefield visitor. A detailed account of each VC action sets it in the wider strategic and tactical context. Detailed sketch maps show the area today, together with the battle-lines and movements of the combatants. It will allow visitors to stand upon the spot, or very close, where the VCs were won. Photographs of the battle sites illustrate the accounts. There is also a comprehensive biography for each VC recipient and photographs. The biographies cover every aspect of their lives 'warts and all' - parents and siblings, education, civilian employment, military career, wife and children, death and burial or commemoration. There is also a host of other information, much published for the first time. Some fascinating characters emerge, with numerous links to many famous people and events.As featured on BBC Radio Wiltshire and in the Daily Record, Gloucestershire Echo, Canterbury Times and Barking & Dagenham Post.
    Show book
  • The Poisonous Solicitor - cover

    The Poisonous Solicitor

    Stephen Bates

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    A brilliant narrative investigation into the 1920s case that inspired Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers and Margery Allingham.In 1922, Major Herbert Armstrong, a Hay-on-Wye solicitor, was found guilty of, and executed for, poisoning his wife, Katharine, with arsenic.Armstrong's case has all the ingredients of a classic murder mystery, from a plot by Agatha Christie or Dorothy Sayers (indeed some aspects of his story appear in Sayers' Unnatural Death). It is a near-perfect whodunnit.One hundred years later, Agatha Award-shortlisted Stephen Bates examines and retells the story of the case, evoking the period and atmosphere of the early 1920s, a time of newspaper sensationalism, hypocrisy and sanctimonious morality.
    Show book
  • Inspirational Quotes - Ways to Get Motivated Avoid Procrastination and Achieve Happiness: Special Edition Vol 1 - cover

    Inspirational Quotes - Ways to...

    Montice Harmon

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    Inspirational Quotes by Montice Harmon — is a beautiful collection of 25+ semi-confessional quotes that speak about the poet's experiences, trials and tribulations for over a decade.The quotes are motivational for discouraged souls to rise above their problems and face the world with a positive attitude despite haters, non believer's and doubter's. Most of Harmon's quotes are motivational and encouraging. He takes his spoken word to another level with this collection. The quotes deal with some aspect of the poet's personal struggles — his joys and sorrows — and they connect you with his life, spirit and inner mind. This edition contains quotes that are funny, serious and life changing directing important issues happening in our world today.
    Show book
  • The Turn of The Screw - cover

    The Turn of The Screw

    Henry James

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    The Turn of the Screw is an 1898 horror novella by Henry James that first appeared in serial format in Collier's Weekly magazine (January 27 – April 16, 1898). In October 1898 it appeared in The Two Magics, a book published by Macmillan in New York City and Heinemann in London. Classified as both gothic fiction and a ghost story, the novella focuses on a governess who, caring for two children at a remote estate, becomes convinced that the grounds are haunted.
In the century following its publication, The Turn of the Screw became a cornerstone text of academics who subscribed to New Criticism. The novella has had differing interpretations, often mutually exclusive. Many critics have tried to determine the exact nature of the evil hinted at by the story. However, others have argued that the brilliance of the novella results from its ability to create an intimate sense of confusion and suspense within the reader.
The novella has been adapted numerous times in radio drama, film, stage, and television, including a 1950 Broadway play, and the 1961 film The Innocents.
Famous works of the author Henry James: The American, The Turn of the Screw, The Portrait of a Lady, What Maisie Knew, The Wings of the Dove, Daisy Miller, The Ambassadors, The Bostonians, Washington Square.
    Show book
  • Coming Ashore - A Memoir - cover

    Coming Ashore - A Memoir

    Catherine Gildiner

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    Written with the same spirit and wit as the bestselling Too Close to the Falls and After the Falls, Coming Ashore is the third and final volume of Catherine Gildiner’s memoir series. 
Picking up her story in the late ’60s at age 21, Cathy whisks through seven years and three countries. Whether reciting verse in the classrooms of the University of Oxford, arranging a date with Jimi Hendrix, teaching inner-city kids literature, rooming with a major drug dealer, falling in love, or working in a psychiatric hospital, Cathy determinedly blazes her own trail through all the passion and uncertainty that comes with the cusp of adulthood. 
Coming Ashore transports readers to a fascinating era populated by lively characters, but most memorable of all is the singular Cathy McClure.
    Show book