Yorkshire Almanac 2026

Unedited excerpt

If an excerpt is used in the book, it will be shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.

A butcher needs a car. I bought my first car in 1969, on the Monday we got back from our honeymoon. We went to Benidorm and stayed in the Hotel Marina. It were just finished. Two weeks on the 12th floor for 20 pound, flights and food included, and you could get pissed for nowt. We went on a trip to a Spanish village with women in black sewing by hand. Just like Leeds, they said. The car were a Ford Escort. I must have had 20 cars since. I’ll get another SUV when the lease runs out next year. Massive, it is, but I still get it in the garage. I mainly use it to go down to the bookies. It’s not cheap, but nowt is. The neighbour comes up, and we watch television the three of us in the kitchen. It’s warm there. If I hadn’t a car, I’d be able to get up the stairs and pay for the fags. But you can’t get a sheep on the back of a bicycle.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

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Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Alcohol (drug) (62) W/G ·
• Alcohol intoxication (28) W/G ·
• 📌Benidorm (1) W/G ·
• Butcher (1) W/G ·
• Car (4) W/G ·
• Ford Escort (1968-2000) (1), small family car, frequently the best-selling car in Britain in the 1980s and 1990s W/G ·
• Ford of Europe (1) W/G ·
• Holiday (5) W/G ·
• Honeymoon (1) W/G ·
• 📌Leeds (248) W/G ·
• Package tour (1) W/G ·
• Sewing (1) W/G ·
• Sheep (28) W/G ·
• Smoking (4) W/G ·
• Spain (9) W/G ·
• Television (1) W/G ·
• Tobacco smoking (3) W/G ·
• Tourism (12) W/G ·
• Wedding (5) W/G ·

All tags.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

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Via Remember LOP, a feed by Tony Harcup which pays tribute to some splendid local journalism, unimaginable today.

Council sources claim the scheme was a victim of the first wave of cuts imposed by Margaret Thatcher following her General Election victory a month later.

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