Maggie Cobbett

News Flash!

Delighted to be among the top 25 walk ons supplied by fbi, the casting agency I work for! If anyone would like to join us, our agent’s books are currently open.

http://www.fbi-agency.co.uk/photos.html

18 June, 2014 - Make the first comment on this story

Back On The Street!

For those of us with a 7.30 call time, every morning out at the Emmerdale village set begins with a hearty breakfast – vegetarian in my case – from Griselda and her team in the catering van. With that barely digested, we’re then whisked off to the Costume department for choices to be made from the clothes that we ‘extras’ have brought along with us. (Only people about to play uniformed parts are issued with outfits.) We were due to film scenes for more than episode today, so quick change routines were going to come into play.

When not required on set, we generally spend most of our day ‘relaxing’ in Dale View, the cottage currently rented by Andy Sugden aka Kelvin Fletcher. Today, fortunately, the action was all taking place outside, so we didn’t have to move out.

I can’t, of course, divulge what the cast members were up to today or even who was there, but my day was a fairly standard one; walking up and down Main Street, sitting outside The Woolpack and then in the sunshine outside the café. Tough job, but someone has to do it! Towards the end of the afternoon, the sun kept appearing and disappearing, which caused problems for continuity and therefore delays with the filming. I got back to the studios in Leeds about 12 hours after I’d left them this morning, so it was quite a long working day. Fun, though, as always!

16 June, 2014 - Make the first comment on this story

An unexpected competition success!

Attendance at the Writers’ Summer School in Swanwick is always a highlight of my year and I’m very proud to be among this year’s prize winners. You can see the full list by following my link to the Swanwick website.

The theme for 2014 was ‘Unsung Hero’, very apt for the year in which we commemorate both the 100th anniversary of the start of WW1 and the 70th anniversary of D-Day. I’ve no idea how many entrants used these events or military themes in general for their poems, but my Noblesse Oblige was inspired by the many stained glass windows commissioned by grieving families for churches and cathedrals nationwide. Grief cannot be measured by wealth or social class, but the ability to record it is quite another matter.

Given that most poetry prizes nowadays seem to be awarded for blank or free verse, I wasn’t optimistic that my entry would appeal to the judges. (I struck lucky in 2006 when I won the Swanwick poetry prize for To My Writing Partner only, I believe, because the brief was to write a sonnet and the strict parameters imposed by that form appealed to me.) No matter how hard I try to resist, every poem I write – and there aren’t many of them – ends up with a regular rhyming scheme and metre.

Whether you see what follows as a parody, cautionary tale or an attempt to make a political statement, I’d appreciate your comments.

Noblesse Oblige

Commemorated in stained glass,

Claude Eustace Ralph de Quincey Brown,

Shining example of his class,

Will be remembered by the town.

Yet what of Joe, the orphan boy,

Sent off by Lord and Lady Brown

As batman to their pride and joy

When their whole world turned upside down?

They knew their own beloved Claude,

Would much prefer to sketch and write.

Young Joe could shoulder every load

And workhouse boys knew how to fight.

No warrior he, their gentle son,

Yet fear of shame kept him at war

Until his trench was overrun

And he lay dying on the floor.

Joe, wounded too, still tended him.

‘Rely on me, Sir, you’ll be fine.’

He waited till the stars grew dim

And shouldered Claude back to the line.

Though in great pain and losing blood,

Joe focussed on his one intent;

To save his master from the mud

Before all energy was spent.

The surgeons did the best they could,

But soon faint hope turned to despair.

Not every hurt could be withstood

And so it was with the young heir.

Without a word he passed away,

His loyal batman by his side.

Joe had no further part to play

And, duty done, collapsed and died.

Prostrate with grief, the Browns had Claude

Borne home by private ambulance;

Remains to be revered, adored.

Brave Joe they left unmourned in France.

Commemorated in stained glass

Claude Eustace Ralph de Quincey Brown,

Shining example of his class,

Will be remembered by the town.

11 June, 2014 - There are 4 comments on this story

An Audience With Alan Bennett

‘You can take the boy out of Leeds, but you can’t take Leeds out of the boy.’ Isn’t that what they say? It’s true of girls too, of course, which is why I found this afternoon’s event at a packed West Yorkshire Playhouse, part of the Alan Bennett Season, particularly fascinating.

Although not contemporaries, Alan Bennett and I share many memories of growing up in Leeds. We even attended adjacent secondary schools and followed much the same route to get there, although the trams he took from his father’s butcher’s shop in Far Headingley to the Ring Road had been replaced with buses by the time it was my turn to go. Leeds Modern School, which – despite its rather misleading name – was a grammar school for boys, and Lawnswood High School shared a large site, although contact between boys and girls was severely discouraged. In my day, a swimming pool and dining hall stood between them and there was an invisible border line patrolled by prefects down the playing field. Much more about the history of the two schools before their merging into a mixed comprehensive in the 1970s can be read on www.lawnswoodhighschool.com.

Alan started the session with a reading from his account of a junior school visit to Leeds Art Gallery during WW2 and had the audience in stitches as he recalled his classmates’ fascination with one particular ‘rude’ painting called ‘After the Battle’ (now mysteriously lost from the collections) and the reaction of his teacher, the redoubtable Miss Timpson, to their behaviour. I spent a lot of time there myself as a child, particularly on wet Sunday afternoons, although I can’t say that I remember that particular painting.  Alan also described the hours he spent next door in the Central Library, where I studied for my ‘A’ levels. I was there quite recently and, apart from the addition of computers, found it hardly changed.

Alan then moved into a question and answer session with another Leeds boy, James Brining, who took over as Artistic Director of the WYP a couple of years ago, before taking questions from the audience. These ranged from anecdotes people wanted to share to requests for information about actors and directors that Alan had worked with over the years; how the Queen viewed his writing about her – he didn’t know – and even his own reaction to being disturbed at dinner by over enthusiastic fans. (He doesn’t mind as long as they’re quick about it and don’t take snaps while he’s trying to eat!)

I can’t remember everything that was said this afternoon – I really wish that I could – but a few extra things do stand out in my mind.

Alan Bennett likes arriving at Leeds City Station, because ‘people there talk like me’.

Being instantly recognisable is a mixed blessing and one not shared by many playwrights. How many people know what his friend Michael Frayn looks like, for example?

He was recently accosted in the restaurant of WYP by two middle-aged ladies who told him that they were great fans  but then expressed the hope that his show was going to be a good one. Adulation combined with an element of threat, he felt.

The last few minutes were devoted to his play Enjoy, a look back at working class family life in Leeds. Who better to depict that, I wonder, although Alan admitted that it was more to be endured than enjoyed!

8 June, 2014 - Make the first comment on this story

Three month update

It’s getting on for three months now since the launch and I’m pleased to report that sales continue to go well and the book has attracted some very positive reviews. Thanks are definitely due to all those fellow writers who’ve given me the oxygen of publicity through Facebook, Twitter and their own websites and to our local press. A spike in sales has followed each mention and a HUGE one after Kath McGurl was kind enough to feature the book on her wonderful Womag blog. (Link to the right)

I’m particularly happy to have received feedback from readers who’ve already been substantially rewarded for their ‘fillers’, whether with useful amounts of cash or other prizes.

Family circumstances have led to a delay in the publication of a paperback version, but I hope that this will be achieved within the next few weeks. Please watch this space!

4 June, 2014 - There are 4 comments on this story

Nothing wrong with nostalgia!

Included in this issue and retitled My, How We’ve Grown, was inspired by a recent visit to Norwood Grove, the little terrace where I spent most of my early childhood.  Our home – two up, two down and a cellar – was very cramped by today’s standards and had no indoor ‘facilities’, but at least it was a ‘through’ house at a time when many families in Leeds occupied ‘back to backs’.

Memories of the Second World War had started to fade by the time I came onto the scene, but the neighbours who’d lived through it were as tightly bonded as any community could be. With the men away fighting, the wives had helped each other in every way they could and the support network was still going strong years later. It was a wonderfully secure environment for children to grow up in and, although our material possessions were scanty in comparison with those enjoyed by subsequent generations, we never felt deprived.

Norwood Grove is now part of ‘studentville’ and many of the houses have roof extensions and ‘opened up’ cellars, giving a great deal more living space. Almost every house boasts a satellite dish and burglar alarm and vehicles line the street from end to end. Evidently today’s children, if any actually live there, don’t have the freedom that we did to play out from dawn to dusk, chalk endless hopscotch squares on the pavement or look forward to Bonfire Night. It’s inconceivable now that a team of fathers would be allowed to pile up on the cobbles anything that would burn, throw a ‘guy’ on top and set fire to the lot while the mothers bustled around with baked potatoes, home made toffee apples and trays of ‘parkin’. Health and Safety hadn’t been invented and we all took our chances with whatever fireworks anyone had brought along. Happy days!

22 May, 2014 - Make the first comment on this story

Tiptoe Through The Bluebells

Yes, I know that the old song referred to tulips, but that point is explained in the story!

‘And a singing bus driver’s the unlikely catalyst for Maggie Cobbett’s lively romance’ in the new issue of the People’s Friend, available today. Even more unlikely, some might say, is that it’s set in Milton Keynes! I love the accompanying illustration, not least of all because the handsome young man bears more than a passing resemblance to my husband in his youth. The title wasn’t my choice, but hey, I bow to the TPF’s superior knowledge of these things.

7 May, 2014 - Make the first comment on this story

A wonderful surprise!

According to Amazon right now, my ‘Easy Money For Writers And Wannabes’ is a #1 Best Seller in Publishing and Books! This may well be a short lived triumph, but right now I’m on Cloud Nine!

28 April, 2014 - Make the first comment on this story

A new arrival!

Most of my efforts of late have been concentrated on publicising my new book, so I think it’s high time to remind everyone about the short story collections I brought out last year. That being so, you might spot this T-shirt at a literary event near you!

Like its predecessor, it’s from Vistaprint and I’m really looking forward to wearing it if we ever get back to short sleeve weather!

27 April, 2014 - Make the first comment on this story

An easy puzzle to solve!

Guess who’s ‘Puzzler of the Week’ in the 1/5/14 issue of Real People! One of the categories of ‘fillers’ I describe in Easy Money For Writers And Wannabes is for puzzles and quizzes and it has just born fruit (£50 worth) for me. Admittedly, it took longer to compose than most of the fillers I submit, but it was a simple idea and well worth the effort. In fairness to the magazine while it’s still on sale, I can’t reproduce it here, but you’ll find it on page 20 together with a nice little blurb about its creator.

The book continues to sell well and I’m indebted to two more people for helping it on its way. Kath McGurl has featured it on her wonderful blog – womagwriter.blogspot.co.uk – and I also have a new 5* review on Amazon.

5.0 out of 5 stars Very useful little book 26 April 2014

27 April, 2014 - Make the first comment on this story