Maggie Cobbett

Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside!

Scarborough has a lot going for it on a sunny day. Well, OK, the North Sea is always cold and paddling is as far as it gets for me these days, but there’s plenty more to enjoy.

Did you know that Charlotte Brontë brought her sister Anne here in 1849 in the hope that the sea air would improve her health. Unfortunately, it was no match for ‘consumption’ (pulmonary tuberculosis) and Anne’s grave can be visited in St Mary’s churchyard, beneath the walls of Scarborough Castle and overlooking the sea. Many visitors make their way up there to pay tribute to this sometimes underrated Brontë sister, the only member of her family not to be laid to rest in Haworth.

However, having been marched up there before, David was keen on this occasion to confine our ramblings to the length and breadth of the South Bay. That area holds a lot of memories for me too, particularly from the days when I worked as an ‘extra’ on The Royal. The building that stood in for the hospital can still be seen on the Esplanade, behind us to the right in the photograph. (Interior scenes were filmed in a disused ward of St Luke’s in Bradford.)

I missed the Scarborough Book Festival this year but look forward to seeing what the 2015 programme will have on offer next April.

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

From Monsoon to Mambo!

What a weekend this has been! Despite the sunny start to the day, Ripon Writers’ Group’s afternoon outing to Eden Camp coincided with spectacular amounts of rain falling from the skies of North Yorkshire. It’s just as well that the museum is based in an old prisoner of war camp with most of the exhibits under cover. Opening and closing our umbrellas every few minutes or so, we splashed through the puddles as we dashed from hut to hut. Nevertheless, there was much to enjoy and I’d recommend a visit to anyone interested in modern history. Just check the weather forecast before you go!

Dancing has been a big part of my life for the last five years, ever since I discovered the excellent classes run by Trisha Lee and her partner Andrew di Giorgio (Deej) and I was very happy to attend their 10th anniversary party.

With their Wetherby venue packed with Strictly Salsa members old and new, the atmosphere closely resembled a sauna. However, no one was in the least bit put off by that. If you look beyond the girl with the shiny hair in the foreground, you can see me dancing for once with my better half – he in a checked shirt. With salsa being such a sociable activity, it’s the done thing to circulate and dance with as many partners as possible during the evening.

This being a party, though, there were also fun and games. I was happy to simper behind my fan during this one! 

A really good time was had by all and everyone escaped unscathed apart from the usual bruises from flying elbows and gouges from high heeled dance shoes. (Just kidding?Well, actually no, but it’s well worth it for all the pleasure we derive from our chosen contact sport!)

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

The Tour de France comes to Ripon!

What a weekend this has been! French workmen were out in force setting up the sponsors’ banners along the route before most of the locals had left their beds. Chosen to host Le Grand Départ, Yorkshire certainly pulled out all the stops and Ripon was determined not to be outdone. Our little city was awash with bunting and yellow bicycles.

This wonderful bicycle can be seen outside the Sun Parlour café in the Spa Gardens.

Many local businesses were keen to offer their products à la française.  

Even the barber’s shop patronised by the Cobbett men wasn’t going to be left out.

People found all kinds of ways of marking their pitches for the race!

When the route through Yorkshire was published, I could hardly believe my eyes. Having watched the Tour de France year in and year out on television, I discovered that it was actually going to pass the top of our street! After a delicious barbecue with friends, we only had to carry our chairs a couple of hundred yards or so and take up our positions.

Blessed with good weather, we rather regretted not having dressed up for the occasion like some of our neighbours. Don’t they look splendid! It was a long wait in the strong sunshine and the sponsors’ caravane that preceded the arrival of the cyclists, colourful though it was, was rather a disappointment to the younger children, poised to collect the freebies they’d been told to expect. (The Fan Pack van had pulled up earlier on but found no parents willing to lash out £20 without even knowing what was inside the packs on offer.) Still, with many miles already behind them and through crowds of spectators that had topped the wildest estimates, we thought that maybe supplies were close to exhaustion by the time the caravane reached Ripon.

Rumours flew around and anticipation mounted. The riders had reached Middleham, Masham, West Tanfield, North Stainley and…

Suddenly  a loud cheer went up and here they were!

With a flat surface that must have provided some relief for their tired legs, they passed by us in a flash on their way to the bypass and the final stretch of their journey to Harrogate.

Every team had plenty of back up, including spare bikes, and they needed them. A couple of riders came to grief just after they passed us and had to negotiate a sharp bend onto the main road out of Ripon.

Was it all worth it? Definitely. I’ve never seen such enthusiasm in Ripon before for any event. I think most of the population turned out to watch the race and there were shenanigans in and around the Market Place all weekend, including a huge screen, stalls, games for the children and live music. Vive le Tour! Vive le Yorkshire!

7 July, 2014 - There are 6 comments on this story

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 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

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

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