The Lancashire dialect and accent (Lanky) refers to the Northern English vernacular speech of the English county of Lancashire. Simon Elmes' book Talking for Britain said that Lancashire dialect is now much less common than it once was, but it is not quite extinct, still spoken by the older population. The British Census has never recorded regional dialects. Until 1974, the county encompassed areas that are now parts of Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cumbria, so the accents found in those areas are also covered by this article. The historic dialects have received some academic interest, most notably the two-part A grammar of the dialect of the Bolton area by Graham Shorrocks, which was said by its publisher to "constitute the fullest grammar of an English dialect published to date".