SQUIT AND WIT … WITH KNOBS ON!

Did you know that in Norfolk ‘decanter’ can mean to slow down a horse while ‘lingerie’ is loitering in an underwear department and ‘rudimentary’ a rough kind of school?

Well, these and other home-grown delights abound in Keith Skipper’s latest book, his37th off the Norfolk production line since the publishing gods urged him to turn up the volume in 1984.

Squit And Wit … With Knobs On! is a fun-packed tribute to wireless wisdom and whimsy in general and BBC Radio Norfolk’s zany panel game Should The Team Think? in particular.
It is fitting that Radio Norfolk boss David Clayton should write the foreword for this cheerfully challenging tome packed with examples of daft-but-demanding tests tackled by unsuspecting panellists for over 20 years.

Live performances have been recorded in full theatres and halls across the county and then broadcast to large and loyal audiences, usually on bank holidays and over the festive season.

David and Skip came up with the format over a half or three up the corner of a pub and now realise that’s where most bright ideas are born. David has relished his role of chairman while Keith has been a panel regular, along with such luminaries as Sid Kipper, Roy Waller, Ivan Bailey, Olly Day and Carol Bundock.

The Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Rev Graham James, and Eastern Daily Press editor, Nigel Pickover, made special guest appearances in recent shows on Cromer Pier, the former to help mark Skip’s 50 years as Norfolk scribe and mardler.

So savour again or discover anew the undimmed glories of Call Me An Old Bluffer, Late Arrivals at the Horticultural Ball, Limerick Challenge, Norfolk Firsts and the dazzling Wit and Wisdom of Sid Kipper.

It all leads to A Sort of Norfolk Dictionary with over 200 proper new meanings for familiar words or expressions. Where else can you learn that ‘arsenic’ is really the result of sitting on a sharp instrument?

Or that Dick Turnip was Norfolk’s first dyslexic highwayman?