Description
Historian, author, songwriter, poet, businessman, humourist,man-about-town, lexicologist, Society of Antiquaries stalwart, President of theLiterary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne and a canny bit elsebesides, Richard Oliver Heslop is the Toon's forgotten Victorian champion. The man responsible for Northumberland Words - hispopular and nationally recognised dialect dictionary, prior to then a weeklyfeature in the Newcastle Chronicle - was a towering figure of his day andnot just on his own doorstep. Oliver, as he was commonly known, was renownedand read throughout his home county; up to the Borders but also south toDurham... and beyond. Both of his time and aheadof it, he knew everyone, it seems. And yet, since his death in 1916, in the middle of World WarOne, an astonishing contribution to the locality in which he was raised and thedialect he championed had been all but overlooked before Geordie: TheMusical, a production first staged in 2015, shone a light on hiscontribution. And now, Words from Hyem, a lovingly researched and occasionallytragic book flavoured with north country wit, fleshes out an individual who inany number of ways embodied the UK's Victorian cultural age. In fact, Words from Hyem - 'Words from Home' -has its own heart-breaking story to tell. Initially it had one author, SouthShields-born Andy Bogle who as he began his research lived in the USA but couldjust as often be found at his second home in Hexham. Now, it has two. 'AdoptedGeordie' Tony Hannan - a Yorkshireman with in-laws galore in Shields - neededlittle persuasion to take up the reins when Andy sadly passed away in August2023. Far from a simple life story, Words from Hyem - The Life and Rhymes ofRichard Oliver Heslop takes 21st century readers on an entertainingand literary whistlestop tour of North East history and popular culture. And indoing so shines a fascinating light on Northumbria's too-long overlookedRenaissance Man.