Asum Grammar

Book excerpt: In deference to the wishes of innumerable readers and at fantastic trouble and expense, we are able to here present a collection of extracts from that learned work, long in preparation but still unpublished, treating upon the fascinating but difficult subject of 'Asum Grammar.' Ben Judd's articles on this mysterious if not mythical tome were a wonderful, long-running and well-loved mainstay in the pages of the Evesham Journal. They treat eruditely and humorously on the matter of Asum, the 'language' once peculiar to Evesham. The current book collects together selected articles and, on the basis that too much of a good thing can be too much, intersperses them with snippets on local vocabulary (places, flowers, birds and suchlike) together with odd poems and snippets in Asum from the letters page of the Evesham Journal. The whole is illustrated by some lovely drawings by E.H. New (from 1904) of many local scenes and buildings.