My daughter went to school in Ackworth and studied the book in English literature. She was the only one who understood the accent and was asked to read passages from it. This despite the fact that I thought she had no Barnsley accent. Although compared to me she sounds like aristocracy. I am currently touring the West Coast of America and nobody understands a word I am saying!
They struggled with me in parts of America and I'm certainly not broad Barnsley. I remember this kid came up to me at breakfast in a motel in small town Alabama, and said to me in classic Forrest Gumpish: "Good mornin' sir, I hear you got a bit of an accent goin' on there! Where's you from?" I thought "I've got an accent?! Are you quite sure about that?!" We got chatting over the waffle machine, and I had to repeat everything very slowly, as he struggled with my accent. When my plastic waffle was ready I put it on my plastic plate, wished him a good day, and jokingly invited him to England. "England? Well I ain't never left Alabama." We were 20 miles from the state border with Georgia.
