About

Bostin Group is about putting smiles on people’s faces!

This is a new website that we hope to spread some smiles and good news about what is good about Birmingham, The Black Country and beyond.

There’s enough doom and gloom in the world that it’s sometimes hard to see the fun in life, the good things, that make us smile.

Our area is full of a lot of heritage and pride and we at Bostin Group want to shout about what is good about both the area and the people. We hope to have some factual, ground breaking and humourous articles to bring to you. Stories that you want to share with people, talk about and discuss.

Bostin is all about being positive, after all it does translate to brilliant, fantastic, great.

iBostin, like the iPhone, is bringing us into the 21st Century, albeit kicking and screaming for some of us!

The i in iBostin is also for “interactive” as we would like to hear from you and what you would like to see on this website.

Why Bostin?

What is Bostin all about? As the old cliche goes, it is many things to many people. Whatever it is to you, the overriding message we keep getting is that it makes people feel good!

Is it a Brummie accent word?

Apparently there is a Black Country Bible which starts along the lines of  “In the beginning there was the Word. And the Word was Bostin”

Brummie is a prominent example of a regional accent of British English.

Examples of celebrity speakers include comedian Jasper Carrot, BBC financial and Match of The Day presenterAdrian Chiles,  rock musician Ozzy Osbourne, Soul singer & model Jamelia, Goodies actor and TV presenterBill Oddie,  broadcaster Les Ross, politician Clare Short, historian and broadcaster Carl Chinn, and SAS soldier and author John “Brummie” Stokes.

It is not the only accent of the West Midlands, although the term is often, erroneously, used by outsiders to refer to all accents of that region. It is quite distinct from the traditional accent of the adjacent Black Country, although modern-day population mobility has blurred the distinction. For instance, Dudley-born comedian Lenny Henry, Bristnall born comedian Frank Skinner, Walsall-born rock musician Noddy Holder and Smethwick-born actress Julie Walters are sometimes mistaken for Brummie speakers.

Birmingham and Coventry accents are also quite distinct, despite the proximity of the cities. To the untrained ear, however, all of these accents may sound very similar, just as British English speakers can find it hard to distinguish between Canadian and USA accents.

As with all English regional accents, the Brummie accent also grades into RP English. The accent of presenter Cat Deeley is listed by her voiceover agency, Curtis Brown, as “RP/Birmingham”.

Bostin actually means, brilliant, fantastic, great! So you can see why we want to spread this positive word!

Now that’s what i call Bostin!

As we are new to this, you could say it’s a “Beta” version and so would welcome all your feedback on what you would like to see on here and what we can improve.

email: iBostin[at]googlemail.com

Tara-a-bit!