Maggie Cobbett

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

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

Local recognition

The support of Graham Chalmers, our local paper’s Weekend Editor, is always very much appreciated. The article above is in the current issue which, in its various editions, has a wide circulation in North and West Yorkshire. Fingers crossed that a surge of sales will follow!

In addition and in response to a distressing article last week about the persecution of the red kite, a poem I wrote some time ago about these magnificent birds also appears on the readers’ letters page. ‘Red Kites Over Eccup Reservoir’ is included amongst the stories and poems available for you to read in the Stories + Poetry section of this website.

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

A mini-break with a few surprises!

Combining a visit to some of our nearest and dearest with a theatre trip, we found ourselves in a ‘family friendly’ hotel in Aylesbury earlier this week. Arriving late on the first night and struggling to find our way in from the car park, we asked directions of a glamorous young lady who seemed to know where she was going. She smiled sweetly and admitted in a strong eastern European accent that actually it was her first time there too. The significance of the fact that she had no luggage didn’t occur to us until later on when we saw her being escorted to a room a few doors down from ours by a smirking receptionist. Could you blame me for scanning the faces of all the men eating breakfast alone the following morning and wondering which one had been her client?

We decided to drive to Amersham and take the Underground, one day travel cards from there being only around £10 each, a great deal cheaper than going directly from Aylesbury. By the time we reached Covent Garden we were more than ready for some refreshment.

Compared with Ripon, the price of even a simple coffee was quite startling and we purchased a very modest lunch from one of the stalls. Eating it as we walked around watching some of the street entertainers on the Piazza was fun, and we confined ourselves to one visit each to the 50p a time public loos located down some steps near St Paul’s. (Not to be confused with the cathedral of the same name and generally known as The Actor’s Church, it was designed by Inigo Jones and hosts many a memorial service.)

The main focus of the day was a matinee performance of ‘Matilda’ at the Cambridge Theatre and what a show that was! Our seats were in the second row from the front and we were so close to the action that we could count every hair on Miss Trunchbull’s legs. Yes, that role was played by a man, but Alex Gaumond was very far away from being a pantomime dame – more like everyone’s nightmare of their school P.E. teacher! I can only comment on the show in superlatives, every aspect of it being the slickest and most entertaining that I’ve seen in many a long year, perhaps ever. The children performing that afternoon were superb, the adults amazing, the scenery and special effects brilliant…  Gush, gush, gush! If you’re thinking of seeing the show for yourself, I suggest that you take a look at the official website: http://uk.matildathemusical.com/

The icing on the cake came that evening. We decided to eat at a popular restaurant in Leicester Square. It was busy, but we were shown straight to a table and our drinks appeared quite promptly. Deep in conversation and in no particular rush, it didn’t occur to us for quite a while that the food we’d ordered had failed to appear. Even then, we were content to wait and were completely taken aback when the manager, prompted by our waiter, appeared at our table and apologised profusely for the delay. Not only that, she insisted that we accept the entire meal – the drinks we’d already had and the food which appeared very shortly thereafter – compliments of the house. We certainly weren’t expecting that but were, as you may imagine, very happy to accept!

12 April, 2014 - There are 2 comments on this story

Been there, done that, got the T-shirt!

This week has been a very busy one for me on the literary scene. John Steinbeck’s novellas have long been favourites of mine and so I went to the West Yorkshire Playhouse to see a new production of Of Mice And Men. As it’s a set book for GCSE this year, the auditorium was full of school parties but, I’m glad to say, the vast majority of the young people watched the play with great attention and seemed to enjoy it. The only sniggers arose at moments I too found incongruous. Curley’s wife, played by Heather Christian, rose from the dead to resume her piano playing at the back of the set and an actor wearing a large rabbit head put everyone in mind of Donnie Darko. That apart, it was an excellent show, with a very effective musical score and great set and lighting effects.

Having only recently joined York Writers, I wasn’t able to take part in their showcase event at the City Screen but went along to support it. This was YW’s contribution to the York Literature Festival and a dozen or so writers took part, offering the audience poetry and prose of various kinds and even a short radio play. Guest poet Don Walls, a York favourite, took centre stage for half an hour or so with a broad selection of his own work.

And so to the T-shirt! During a recent session of YW’s novelists’ support group, I fell into conversation with a writer who had just had one printed with the cover of her latest book. What a good idea, I thought, and rushed to design one of my own as soon as I got home. Now that’s arrived, I’ll be able to wander around literary and other events like a human sandwich board. Do look out for me!

30 March, 2014 - Make the first comment on this story

The Disappearing Woman

This was the title of Germaine Greer’s talk at York Literature Festival and very powerful it was too.  I’d heard of the gender imbalance in some cultures – more than you’d think – where boys are prized many times more than girls, but I had no idea of its extent until I heard the latest statistics. Millions of female foetuses are aborted each year and many more little girls die as a result of ill treatment or neglect. Those who survive are often condemned to a life of servitude at the hands of their own families and then those that they’re obliged to marry into.

As far as the West is concerned, we’ve come some way since The Female Eunuch (1971) and its sequel The Whole Woman (1999), but there’s certainly no room for complacency, particularly as we get older. It would be a brave man who’d try to get the better of  Germaine Greer, though. As capable as a stand up comic when it comes to dealing with hecklers, she injected a great deal of humour into her serious subject matter last night and the audience roared when she referred to a gushing interviewer who’d assured her that she wasn’t old.

“I’m seventy f***ing five,” she retorted. “Of course I’m old!”

21 March, 2014 - Make the first comment on this story