Yorkshire Writers' Lunch

Who is King of the Road? The motorist versus the cyclist.   Many cyclists would have us believe the motorist is the bad guy, forcing them off the road at every opportunity and, of course, this sometimes happens, but not in the majority of cases.   New updates state cyclists should cycle in the middle of the lane on quiet roads, in slow-moving traffic, or when approaching junctions or road narrowings.  The code also says cyclists should maintain a distance of 0.5 metres from the kerb edge when cycling on busy roads or with traffic that is moving faster than them.   Mmm.   In theory this may work, in practice, I am not too sure.   When cyclists are going straight ahead at a junction, they have priority over traffic waiting to turn into or out of a side road, unless road signs or markings indicate otherwise.   Really!!   How ridiculous.   Of course, the motorist must abide by these rules, yet cyclists seem oblivious to some basic rules which als...

Sometimes, inspiration is a long time coming. We get bits of ideas, odd sentences that flit across the mind, that could be turned into … The Calderdale Grid Project provides just the spark we need. Photographers and writers from the area were assigned to a particular map location to photograph the landscape and find inspiration there to produce a written response to the places. Lasting until 26 February, the project was first launched before lockdown in 2019, but has only recently come to fruition. It was also only recently that I came across the idea and thought oh, that looks interesting, and went to see it at the Smith Art Gallery in Brighouse. The Art Gallery and Library are housed in a nineteenth century mansion, built originally as a home but gifted to the council, becoming a Free Library in 1898. In 1907, Alderman William Smith bequeathed his art collection. As well as the art, various exhibitions are held throughout the year. The Grid Project exhibitio...

  We’re sitting around a couple of tables that have been pushed together in a dimly lit corner of The Spark. A sea of empty glasses covers most of the table tops. Gerry the Collector is off duty. Visiting a friend in hospital, somebody says. His red plastic glass carrier is in full view on the right-hand end of the bar, next to the jar of pickled eggs. But nobody else can be bothered to use it. Tan decides it’s time to get another round in and takes a token empty with him to the bar. With an obligatory stop at the smoking shelter, it’ll be a while before he’s back. We’ve been mainly talking rubbish, but now and then there’s a gem in the dross. Roke’s story about his shoes being nicked in a restaurant and Fletch’s account of cycling home one night on a bike fitted with stabilisers. Tan eventually returns carrying three pints with shaky hands. Packets of tomato sauce crisps tumble from the many pockets of his parka. Someone clears a space for the new arrivals.   ...