YP Magazine
CHRISTA ACKROYD A man who was pure gold – and one who deserves his statue
SOMETIMES in life you are lucky enough to meet someone who is truly a one-off. In the old days we would call them characters. Nowadays they would no doubt become global sensations simply by being unequivocally upfront and unashamed of their...
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CHRISTA ACKROYD Amarkof nurture that I will always now carry with me
ILOVE poetry. I read it, I feel it, I cry with it, sometimes laugh at it and often peruse the numerous books I have containing it in good times and in bad. I can find you a poem to go with every event in your life and have read them at both weddings...
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CHRISTA ACKROYD Hoping for change as Year of the Snake slithers into the past
MY mum always hated snakes. Not the human variety. We all hate those. No, the ones that slither and slide and I have absolutely no idea why. As far as I know she never came face to face with one her entire life. But her reaction to even the word was...
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CHRISTA ACKROYD Violence cannot win, we have to believe in a better world
IT is time for us all to wake up, step up and pledge for a better New Year. If we don’t do something collectively I really feel the world, as my granny used to say, is going to hell in a handcart. As I I have said before, this was a year I was looking...
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CHRISTA ACKROYD The united voices that sing out with hope for a better future
AS you read this I have absolutely no idea what time it is or even what day it is. Christmas for me this year will be very different. And that’s a good thing. I will explain why in a moment. Suffice it to say jet lag and time zones always confuse...
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Cover: Gingerbread, Caramel and White Chocolate Ganache Cake from Booths. See the recipe on pages 34 and 35.
The Yorkshire Post Magazine, Suite E3 Joseph’s Well, Hanover Walk, Leeds, LS3 1AB. Editorial: Catherine Scott email [email protected] Advertising: tel 0113 238 8559
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The Yorkshire Pages, pages 4-17
Christa Ackroyd ................................ 4 Yorkshire Portraits .......................... Take Three .......................................... 5 My Yorkshire ......................................
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CHRISTA ACKROYD Christmas is not about how fat your goose is… but any act of kindness
CHRISTMAS is coming and, with apologies to vegetarians, the goose is getting fat. But you know what I am going to say don’t you. It’s not the cost of the giving it is the giving itself that is Christmas. And it’s not just for Christmas, though this...
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CHRISTA ACKROYD Sadness for an innocent Royal caught up in this sordid affair
THIS summer I was lucky enough to be invited to the Royal Garden party at Buckingham Palace. I was thrilled. This is not a columnist for anti-monarchists, although I totally understand why their ranks have been swelled in recent times. Our invitation...
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CHRISTA ACKROYD Feeding time for the birds, but what should I do now? WATERMARK
THIS week a leaflet from the council was pushed through my door, so I suppose everybody got one. And quite honestly it has thrown me. And so a week of research began. Do I follow the advice written upon it or continue to do that which I have been doing...
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CHRISTA ACKROYD Time to cry, but like all funerals planned with love, time to smile too nd
THIS week I have been thinking about my funeral. Morbid ? Perhaps. Don’t get me wrong I am not going anywhere soon, it’s just that if it’s my final performance I want it to be a good one. I am thinking of Don’t Rain On My Parade to play me out, which...
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CHRISTA ACKROYD Bravery of a mother who put her tragic story into words
THEY say everyone has a book in them. And I can’t tell you how many times I have been asked when I am going to write mine. The answer is ‘woman, know thyself’. Probably sometime, never. It’s not that I don’t have a lot to say. As regular readers will...
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CHRISTA ACKROYD Response is always positive when you take trouble to ask person’s name
IWAS taught many things by the friend I lost some six months ago now. She was clever, witty, and as my mum would say could talk the hind legs off a donkey. But then so can I. Our daily phone calls about this and that, or about nothing at all suited our...
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Love me tender: celebrating 200 years of the railways Saturday September 20 2025
A treasure trove of everything that is rail A much-loved television classic makes a return How trains created the great British seaside holiday A sector that enjoyed its own fashion and style
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CHRISTA ACKROYD Furore over Kate’s hair highlights a horrific lack of empathy nd
LAST week the world’s media or rather the world’s hairdressers invented a new word. It is not anything I am going to lose sleep over or even anything I find particularly interesting, but it seems it is the county’s latest obsession. Bronde. It is the...
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CHRISTA ACKROYD St George himself knew we are so much more than one culture
YESTERDAY was National Food Bank Day. And yes I know there is a ‘day’ for everything but this one is important. Before I begin you may expect me to bemoan the fact that food banks should exist at all. And of course there should be no need for...
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CHRISTA ACKROYD How Robbie Williams had the last word on phones for children
OF all the people I would have thought I’d have ignored when it comes to parenting (or grandparenting) advice it would be singer Robbie Williams. He who broke a million young girls hearts when he announced he was leaving Take That. He who then went on...
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CHRISTA ACKROYD The end of a very special era... but they will be friends forever
AND just like that it is over. Almost 30 years invested in the ups and downs of life, of their lives – and the plug has been pulled. But was it worth the ride? Absolutely. Did it disappoint in places? Of course it did. And just like so often in real...
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CHRISTA ACKROYD Some ‘me’ time and the story of a determined rise to the top
THIS week one sunny afternoon I took myself and my two dogs for an afternoon of sheer indulgence. It’s been a mad, crazy few days, a celebrant at a funeral for a wonderful man, filming for two different network programmes, column, house sitting for a...
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CHRISTA ACKROYD We need more than lanyards, cups and QR codes to tackle bad behaviour
TODAY I am going to write about a television programme I have not watched. Which on the face of it seems a pointless exercise and certainly something I have never done before. But it is the only stand I can make to choose programming, any programming,...
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CHRISTA ACKROYD Warrior of the airwaves as strong and articulate as he ever was
THIS is perhaps one of the strangest columns I have written of the hundreds we have now shared together. I was going to say among the saddest but the person I am writing it for would not want me to do that. You see the person I am writing about, many...
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CHRISTA ACKROYD Joy of listening in to family holiday more of a distraction than newsroom
IHAVE to admit I have sneaked away from the chaos of a huge family holiday back to my bedroom to write this week’s column. And it’s proving pretty hard to concentrate. Not that I am not used to writing in noisy environments. Four decades in busy,...
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Catherine Scott MAGAZINE EDITOR
Welcome to this week’s Yorkshire Post Magazine. We take a look behind the scenes of the new Railway Children production taking place on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway. We talk to some Yorkshire potters taking part in a brand new ceramics show at...
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Catherine Scott MAGAZINE EDITOR
Welcome to this week’s Yorkshire Post Magazine. We meet the woman who has turned her narrowboat into a cafe and therapy centre, talk to the garden designers taking part in the first RHS Wentworth Woodhouse Flower Show and hear about the new history and...
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CHRISTA ACKROYD Enjoy your jam and tennis… butwitha sprinkle of self-restraint nd
THIS week has been a surprising one. Firstly I had my two adorable grandchildren to stay overnight. Always a joy, though a little trauma in getting them up and ready for school in time. But then I remember my mum calling and calling me to get up for...
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CHRISTA ACKROYD Our life is very precious… and how it comes to an end is equally so
LAST weekend in my village it was all systems go. There were 23 gardens open to the public visited by hundreds of people who dodged the showers and paid £6 for the privilege, raising vital funds for a local charity. I now live next door to two very...
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CHRISTA ACKROYD How to put the heart back into our lifeless town and city centres
IT was my first right of passage. From the age of thirteen I begged my mum to let me go shopping on a Saturday with all my friends. She took some persuading I can tell you. Married to a policeman she trotted out every danger imaginable from getting run...
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Singing the praises of mill
Installation inspired by the history of building
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CHRISTA ACKROYD Young are braver than they believe, stronger than they seem
IAM shocked but not surprised. A certain group of schoolchildren in this country of ours are being ‘betrayed’. Who says so? The Education Secretary. Betrayal is her word not mine. And here I applaud the Government for at least admitting that something...
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CHRISTA ACKROYD Good for the purse, good for the planet and good for the soul
IT is not just a case of needs must that has led me to embrace the power of recycling, reclaiming and reusing. It is because I genuinely think it is the right thing to do. And it appeals to the Yorkshire in me. Having recently moved into a tiny 1980s...
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CHRISTA ACKROYD Brave words of aKingwho understands the mood of the people
JUST when I thought I couldn’t love our King any more I find my admiration for him going from strength to strength. How, when so many politicians get the mood of the people so badly wrong, does he, a man of undoubted privilege with a staff list as big...
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Cover: VE Day celebrations in Albion Street, Leeds. This original black-and-white image has been painstakingly
colourised by James Pawlowski. See feature, pages 8 to 14. The Yorkshire Post Magazine, Suite E3 Joseph’s Well, Hanover Walk, Leeds, LS3 1AB. Editorial: Catherine Scott email [email protected] Advertising: tel 0113 238 8559
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CHRISTA ACKROYD Yes, reach for the stars but always keep your feet on the ground
IHAVE five grandchildren, all of them girls. And how deliciously exciting is that? Especially for someone who has spent the best part of her life fighting for the sort of opportunities most women growing up in the sixties and seventies could only dream...
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CHRISTA ACKROYD Optimism and beauty in everything and everyone for Hockney
OF all the questions I am asked the most ‘Who is the best person you have ever interviewed?’ is the one. My answer is always the same. ‘Those ordinary people who find themselves at the centre of a storm and are brave enough not only to weather it and...
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CHRISTA ACKROYD Celebrating those true colours of special love for your family
THE first thing I did when I moved into my new little house was unpack my treasured photographs. Yes there is much to do and lots to improve, so much so you may think they are better staying where they were, in boxes. Well you would be wrong. Even...
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Nice day for a white wedding
The stars are shining at leading wedding venue The perfect wines to match the perfect day In the lap of luxury to celebrate the big event The perfect location for the honeymoon
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CHRISTA ACKROYD Walking on hot coals… for those of us far luckier than people in need
THERE are not many people I would walk over hot coals for but when my Homeless Street Angels asked me to literally do just that how could I say no? After all which would you choose – living on the streets in all weathers – or bearing a little temporary...
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CHRISTA ACKROYD How moving house made it simply a time to sit a while and remember
BY the time you read this I will have moved house. As it is at present I could hardly find my computer to write this under the piles and piles of life’s detritus much of which I should not keep but most of which I no doubt will. I am one of life’s...
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CHRISTA ACKROYD The cherished moments with Kathryn in the best... and worst of times
TODAY is International Women’s day and I want my column to be about a woman with whom I have travelled the world. And whom I thought the world of too. I cannot be sad that my lovely friend has gone. For her sake. At peace, and reunited with her beloved...
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The Yorkshire Pages, pages 4-17
Christa Ackroyd ................................ 4 Yorkshire Portraits .......................... 5 Take Three .......................................... 5 My Yorkshire ...................................... 6 Corner of Yorkshire...
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CHRISTA ACKROYD The Princess shows we can learn so much from life’s seismic events
CHANGE for many of us is one the most frightening words in the English dictionary. Yet try as we might, we cannot avoid it. You know what they say; Man makes plans and God laughs. I genuinely believe that we can’t control much of what happens to us,...
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CHRISTA ACKROYD Humility and compassion are stronger weapons in this world
OF all the things I have thought on this week one comment which stays with me came from a woman in her 90s who survived Auschwitz on the 80th anniversary of its liberation. That and an American bishop who dared to preach to arguably the most powerful...
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Cover: Graham Ibbeson with work from a new sculpture trail
‘From Coal Queens to Comedy Kings’ at the National Coal Mining Museum. Picture by Simon Hulme. See feature, pages 10 to 12. The Yorkshire Post Magazine, Suite E3 Joseph’s Well, Hanover Walk, Leeds, LS3 1AB. Editorial: Catherine Scott email...
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CHRISTA ACKROYD Los Angeles fires only serve to highlight the great divide
IWRITE to you from my sick bed where I am feeling incredibly sorry for myself. Which is unlike me. Then again as Tom Hanks once quoted “This too my way through. I am sure many of you are doing the same. And I am also sure I will live.shall pass.” But...
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CHRISTA ACKROYD Refusing to get into a pickle... by ignoring powerful men’s clickbait
TODAY’S column is about a pickled onion. Not just any pickled onion but a lone solitary out of date pickled onion that was floating about all by itself in a jar of malt vinegar pushed to the back of the cupboard. Don’t judge me. It’s not horrifically...
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CHRISTA ACKROYD Sorry to all dinosaurs, but 2024 was the year of the strong woman
ON the face of it, 2024 was been not a good year for women. Over the Pond, a man who declared he would take charge of women’s health, whether they liked it or not, became arguably the most influential person on the planet. During his grubby election...
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CHRISTA ACKROYD Pantomime at theatre when drunks and hecklers are behind you
FOR many families, the festive season wouldn’t be complete without a trip to the pantomime. Growing up in Bradford, it was always an treat. It is one of the reasons why I absolutely love the Alhambra with its magnificent gilded interior designed to...
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CHRISTA ACKROYD My halo slipped long ago but angels walk among us every day
POOR Margot. Six years old and already typecast. This week, and for the last three years, she has played an angel in the school nativity play. And she is not happy. With her long locks of the palest gold and her tiny little dot frame, my granddaughter...
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Cover: Saeka Shirai as the Ghost of Christmas Past and
Jonathan Hanks as Scrooge, in Northern Ballet’s A Christmas Carol. Picture by Danny Lawson/PA. See feature, pages 8 to 10. The Yorkshire Post Magazine, Suite E3 Joseph’s Well, Hanover Walk, Leeds, LS3 1AB. Editorial: Catherine Scott email...
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CHRISTA ACKROYD Just like the Wizard of Oz, MasterChef star Wallace’s spell is broken
LAST weekend I went with my beautiful granddaughters and their friends to see the film of the moment, Wicked. For those who have absolutely no idea what it is about….where have you been? Allow me to sum up its premise. It is essentially a film about...
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Christmas FOOD&DRINK
Bettys expert on the sweet art of chocolate making Elaine Lemm’s best cook books for Christmas
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CHRISTA ACKROYD Taxing times in which our support for the nation’s farmers is vital nd
IDON’T claim to come from farming stock. I certainly don’t come from landed gentry, though two of my late uncles were farmers and one cousin still is. Yet this week I write in support of all those who work to put food on our tables. Because folks I am...
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Christmas homes&interiors special
Welcome to this weekend’s festive special as we start the countdown to Christmas. We visit some of Yorkshire’s stately homes to see their Christmas preparations and meet the family upholstery business giving a new lease of life to old furniture. The...
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CHRISTA ACKROYD It’s important that we all continue to wear poppies with pride
TO carry the flag at the Remembrance Day service was simply the biggest honour bestowed on a Brownie, Scout or Girl Guide. We marched from our little wooden hut to the church with flags flying, often joined by old soldiers proudly wearing their medals....
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CHRISTA ACKROYD Why I’ll quite happily go barefoot in the park and most other places
IWOULD be around 16 years old when I attempted to sneak out the door to catch the bus into town for a day of shopping with my friends. Dressed in my finest button through midi dress (Chelsea Girl) with long tie-belted cardigan (C&A) and more than a...
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CHRISTA ACKROYD Dinosaurs are evidently still among us when it comes to equality nd
DON’T believe a word of it when David Attenborough et al tells you dinosaurs don’t exist. They are very much alive and roaming among us. I don’t know about you, but I have not been following every last utterance in the Tory party leadership contest....
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CHRISTA ACKROYD Reassuring to know that Dame Judi has not forgotten her roots
SOMETIMES the happening you are least looking forward to turns out to be exactly the thing you were needing. You know, the invite you nearly turned down but then accept either through sense of duty or because you have already said yes. And on...
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CHRISTA ACKROYD Appreciating the restorative power of bags of community spirit
IWAS not in the best of moods as I drove into Malton for the food festival. And of all things, it was over a paper bag. Let me explain. I have just come back from a wonderful couple of weeks in my favourite destination, the village nestled deep in the...
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