Description

Canny Bit Verse –  Dialect poems,  by Robert Allen.

This book contains  all the poems from his original recordings first issued as 3 tapes.  “The Canniest Place on Eorth”,  “Riding High”, and, “The Lang Pack”.

Whilst singing the praises of the North Tyne valley, enthusing about village cricket, or bemoaning sad tidings in the whee’s deid (obituary) column, Robert Allen combines his  pride in Northumbria with gentle humour in his local dialect.

For those who don’t know their cushat (wood pigeon) from their shavie (chaffinch),  a glossary of dialect words is provided.

(taken from the reviewed published by:The Northumbrian, Spring 1995)

Robert can be heard reading his own poems on the 2 CD set available separately.

Foreword to the CD

“Robbie’s complex understanding of the land, animals, characters and community, story and history, though rooted very particularly in place and time, carries a universal message. At best, his poems attain the timeless, anonymous quality of old Northumbrian ballad and song. It is good to read these poems on the page; but to hear them spoken in Robbie’s own gentle North Tyne accent is to participate fully in them, and in an activity which takes us to the root of what it means to be human.”

Katrina Porteous.

Illustrations by Henry Brewis