Local author, Chris Nickson, on why we should be celebrating the culture we already have in Leeds – and maybe join it up a bit more …
I own a book called Leeds Born and Bred, published in the early 1980s. It’s made up of short biographies of important figures from different fields who were born or raised here. In the arts there’s no Alan Bennett, but there is Henry Moore, Richard Hoggart (who was also father of the recently deceased Simon, I believe), Fannie Waterman, and Michael Roll, along with Margaret Storm Jameson and Linton Andrews. Who? Go into entertainment and you’ll find Keith Waterhouse, along with one-time writing partner Willis Hall, Peter O’Toole, Frankie Vaughan, a disgraced DJ whose name shouldn’t be mentioned and R.C. Scriven, evidently best-known for his radio plays.
With the recent discussion about gearing up for a City of Culture bid and Leeds celebrating those who’ve made a splash, the list above – far from complete – is mostly made up of those who achieved their fame elsewhere. Some, like Waterhouse, kept their Leeds association because of some early work (in his case, Billy Liar, although no one mentions the author Barbara Taylor Bradford, who’s also from here, served her apprenticeship as a reporter here in the early ‘50s, like Waterhouse, and set part of the breakthrough A Woman of Substance here). Many might as well never have had anything to do with the city.
So how, exactly, do these people who’ve gone elsewhere enhance Leeds? I don’t get it.
Wouldn’t it make more sense, and be more relevant to celebrate what’s here now? It’s not as is Leeds is short of talent in any field. Within writing, for instance, there’s Anthony Clavane, one of the best authors about sport working today. Two former members of Chumbawamba have proved to be excellent dramatists: both Boff Whalley and Alice Nutter are playwrights, and the latter also has an International Emmy for her TV work. Yes, they’re political, but Leeds has a long radical tradition. And what about Steve Mosby and Frances Brody? The pair of them have made big waves as mystery writers. And some of the young writers in the LS13 anthology.
Those are just a few names off the top of my head. Now, I’ve only been back in Leeds a few months, but I grew up here, and I’ve spent a fair bit of time here in the last few years. Something that’s struck me is how arts people seem to be in little groups here, and there’s very little real contact between them. What I’d love to see is for people to pull together, for some umbrella organisation to draw in all these different groups and individuals. Help them help each other, and to help Leeds. Right now, for whatever pride we have, we’re still a city somewhat divided.