What's happening in Beeston, Belle Isle, Cottingley, Holbeck, Hunslet, Middleton and Stourton
We’ve just had a blisteringly hot and dry summer and now the rain has started falling, but we need a lot of it to soak the ground and fill up our reservoirs. 17 years ago, when I was the Environment Secretary, it fell to me to tell Parliament about the
Leeds Civic Trust has unveiled its 211th Blue Plaque, celebrating the life and legacy of Leeds-born poet Tony Harrison, whose controversial poem v. was recently named by Prime Minister Andy Burnham as his favourite. The plaque was unveiled on Monday (12 October 2026) at the Hamara Healthy Living Centre in
Last year, in September 2025, Tony Harrison died. He was born and grew up in Beeston in a working-class family. His father was a baker and his mother a ‘homemaker’. From an early age he was clever, being able to read before he went to school. He won a scholarship
Last Sunday (12 October 2025) South Leeds paid unique tribute to one of Leeds’s most beloved and admired poets, Tony Harrison, who died at the end of September. Harrison was a Beeston-born poet and dramatist of national significance whose most famous (some might say notorious) work, V, is about Beeston
Slung Low and the London Review of Books are to bring Tony Harrison’s poem ‘v.’ home to Holbeck Cemetery for its 40th anniversary, with unprecedented site-specific readings on Sunday 12 October, in a celebration of Harrison’s life and work, following his death on 26 September 2025. Tony Harrison’s ‘v.’ is
You may not have heard of Tony Harrison, but the poet is highly thought of in literary circles. Much of his work is steeped in the classical world of Greece and Rome, but 40 years ago he wrote a poem about Beeston that put him on the front pages of
Distinguished Leeds-born poet and playwright Tony Harrison, has received one of the city’s highest civic honours. On hand to present Tony with a ‘Leeds Award’ in recognition of his nationally and internationally acclaimed work was the Lord Mayor of Leeds, Cllr Eileen Taylor as part of a special ceremony held
Here’s your regular roundup of what’s making South Leeds tick on other websites and blogs. We covered the furore about Tony Harrison’s poem “V” which was written about Holbeck Cemetery and broadcast on Radio 4 recently. Over in the Yorkshire Evening Post Oliver Cross has written a rather good piece
As previously reported on South Leeds Life, BBC Radio 4 has made a documentary about the controversial poem “V”. V was written by Leeds-born poet Tony Harrison in response to a visit to his parents’ grave in Holbeck Cemetery in 1984. He found gravestones spray painted with four-letter words. The
Here’s your regular roundup of what’s making South Leeds tick on other websites and blogs. The Friends of Holbeck Cemetery report on a visit from poet and writer Blake Morrison who was making a programme about Tony Harrison’s poem V for BBC Radio 4. Cottingley TRAC’s Facebook page includes a