RICHARD BATSON Norfolk dialect will take centre stage in an annual festival at Cromer – in a year when it has already taken several bows in the limelight.

RICHARD BATSON

Norfolk dialect will take centre stage in an annual festival at Cromer – in a year when it has already taken several bows in the limelight.

A packed audience is expected at the town's parish hall for an evening celebration of the local tongue, adjudicated for the 23rd year running by writer and broadcaster Keith Skipper.

A series of old and new faces will perform works in Norfolk in an event which is part of the Cromer and North Norfolk Festival of Music, Drama and Dance.

Mr Skipper said it was “a bit like a family reunion,” but with some new faces to add to the old, and that the dialect was enjoying a “healthy and positive year”.

Revelations that Lord Nelson spoke and wrote in Norfolk, and that the Queen did the dialect as one of her party pieces had raised the profile – and had seen the Friends of Norfolk Dialect (FOND) group send Her Majesty a copy of the “bible” Larn Yarself Norfolk.

During the year there had also been a translation of the classic Chekhov story The Burbot into Norfolk – showing the “versatility and vibrancy” of the local language, said Mr Skipper.

FOND were also hard at work promoting the dialect among future generations with grant-aided visits to local schools.

The Norfolk Dialect Celebration is at Cromer Parish Hall on Tuesday April 26 at 7.30. Admission £1.50 on the door.