Latest news with #UnionStreet
BBC News
12-07-2025
- BBC News
Fire crews deal with Beeston flat blaze
Fire crews are dealing with a blaze at flat in Fire and Rescue Service were called to Union Street, Beeston, at about 15:14 BST on four crews that are putting out the fire said it was still "well alight".The fire service said it requested an investigation to begin once the fire had been put out.
The Herald Scotland
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Author Dame Pat Barker thought honours letter was income tax bill
The Booker Prize winner has published 16 novels, diving into anti-war themes including trauma and memory. Describing the moment she received the news of her damehood, she said: 'I picked up the envelope from the carpet and the first thing I noticed, what beautiful quality paper it was, and I thought, this is either the income tax getting really angry, or it's something from the Palace or the Cabinet Office. Author Pat Barker holds up her award-winning novel, The Ghost Road, at London's Guildhall after winning the Booker Prize (Neil Munns/PA) 'Nobody else does that kind of quality of paper. I still sort of had to read the first paragraph several times before it sank in.' Her debut novel, Union Street, was published in 1982 and won her the 1983 Best Of Young British Novelists award. It was later made into the film, Stanley And Iris, starring Jane Fonda and Robert De Niro. She added: 'One of the things that, in spite of everything, I like about the British honour system is the way it records people who do very low profile, working for free, long hours, weeks, months, years, for something that they genuinely believe in and usually unpaid, and for the benefit of other people, and they are the bedrock of the honour system, and they actually are the reason why it is so respected, and knights and dames are just cherries on the top of that cake. 'I am happy to be a cherry.' The author is known for exploring the effects of war in her novels, attributing her grandfather and stepfather as inspiration for some of her most popular books. She said: 'I was very much a war baby. My Victory in Europe Day was my second birthday, and I thought the street parties were for me, as any two year old would. 'I think in my family, there were people who bore the very visible mental and physical injuries of war. 'My stepfather, for example, was in the trenches at 15, my grandfather had a bayonet wound, and he used to get stripped off at the kitchen sink, and the bayonet wound was terrible, very obvious, and he never talked about it. So you've got the two things there that are essential for writers, a story that is obviously present, but which isn't being told. 'The last thing any writer needs is a completed story. What you need as a writer is a mystery. And I had that.' She began writing the Regeneration trilogy in 1991 with the first book following English Lieutenant Billy Prior as he is being treated for shellshock. The book was adapted into a film in 1997 which starred The Two Popes actor Jonathan Pryce and Maurice's James Wilby. In 1993, Dame Pat published the second book in the trilogy, The Eye In The Door, which follows William Rivers, the psychiatrist treating Prior at Craiglockhart Hospital in Edinburgh. She was awarded the Guardian Fiction Prize that same year and in 1995 won the Booker Prize for Fiction for The Ghost Road, the third book in the trilogy, which recounts the final months of the war from alternating perspectives of Billy, as he is about to rejoin the war, and William, who grapples with the work he has done to help injured men at the hospital. More recently, the novelist was shortlisted for The Women's Prize For Fiction in 2019 for her book, The Silence Of The Girls, part of The Woman Of Troy trilogy, which recounts the lives of women living through the Trojan War. The Silence of the Girls won an award (Alamy/PA) It is followed by The Women Of Troy (2021) and The Voyage Home (2024), and sees the author shift her storytelling both in its genre, from historical fiction to myth, and characters, writing from the perspective of women instead of men. She said: 'I was wanting to deal with the experience of women, and specifically with rape as a weapon of war, because that is really what the Trojan trilogy, as it is at the moment, is about and that is also a very up to date, modern area of political and legal debate, making rape a war crime similar and equal to other war crimes. 'I think that is a battle that is still being fought for women in lots of ways. And that shadows the subsequent lives of women, but also of their children, who are very often the product of rape, and that is difficult for the woman and the child and the community that the woman comes from. 'So it seems as if it's thousands of years ago but actually myth isn't thousands of years ago. Myth is applicable to our lives today, and that's always what I want to bring out.' Dame Pat was born in Thornaby-on-Tees, Cleveland, and raised mainly by her grandparents. She began her writing career in her late 30s after studying international history at the London School of Economics and taught history and politics at colleges of further education until 1982.
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Author Dame Pat Barker thought honours letter was income tax bill
Author Pat Barker, known for The Regeneration Trilogy, thought the letter announcing her damehood in the King's Birthday Honours was an income tax bill and that HMRC were 'really angry'. Dame Pat, 82, became a CBE in 2000 and is being given her damehood, one of the highest honours in the United Kingdom, for services to literature. The Booker Prize winner has published 16 novels, diving into anti-war themes including trauma and memory. Describing the moment she received the news of her damehood, she said: 'I picked up the envelope from the carpet and the first thing I noticed, what beautiful quality paper it was, and I thought, this is either the income tax getting really angry, or it's something from the Palace or the Cabinet Office. 'Nobody else does that kind of quality of paper. I still sort of had to read the first paragraph several times before it sank in.' Her debut novel, Union Street, was published in 1982 and won her the 1983 Best Of Young British Novelists award. It was later made into the film, Stanley And Iris, starring Jane Fonda and Robert De Niro. She added: 'One of the things that, in spite of everything, I like about the British honour system is the way it records people who do very low profile, working for free, long hours, weeks, months, years, for something that they genuinely believe in and usually unpaid, and for the benefit of other people, and they are the bedrock of the honour system, and they actually are the reason why it is so respected, and knights and dames are just cherries on the top of that cake. 'I am happy to be a cherry.' The author is known for exploring the effects of war in her novels, attributing her grandfather and stepfather as inspiration for some of her most popular books. She said: 'I was very much a war baby. My Victory in Europe Day was my second birthday, and I thought the street parties were for me, as any two year old would. 'I think in my family, there were people who bore the very visible mental and physical injuries of war. 'My stepfather, for example, was in the trenches at 15, my grandfather had a bayonet wound, and he used to get stripped off at the kitchen sink, and the bayonet wound was terrible, very obvious, and he never talked about it. So you've got the two things there that are essential for writers, a story that is obviously present, but which isn't being told. 'The last thing any writer needs is a completed story. What you need as a writer is a mystery. And I had that.' She began writing the Regeneration trilogy in 1991 with the first book following English Lieutenant Billy Prior as he is being treated for shellshock. The book was adapted into a film in 1997 which starred The Two Popes actor Jonathan Pryce and Maurice's James Wilby. In 1993, Dame Pat published the second book in the trilogy, The Eye In The Door, which follows William Rivers, the psychiatrist treating Prior at Craiglockhart Hospital in Edinburgh. She was awarded the Guardian Fiction Prize that same year and in 1995 won the Booker Prize for Fiction for The Ghost Road, the third book in the trilogy, which recounts the final months of the war from alternating perspectives of Billy, as he is about to rejoin the war, and William, who grapples with the work he has done to help injured men at the hospital. More recently, the novelist was shortlisted for The Women's Prize For Fiction in 2019 for her book, The Silence Of The Girls, part of The Woman Of Troy trilogy, which recounts the lives of women living through the Trojan War. It is followed by The Women Of Troy (2021) and The Voyage Home (2024), and sees the author shift her storytelling both in its genre, from historical fiction to myth, and characters, writing from the perspective of women instead of men. She said: 'I was wanting to deal with the experience of women, and specifically with rape as a weapon of war, because that is really what the Trojan trilogy, as it is at the moment, is about and that is also a very up to date, modern area of political and legal debate, making rape a war crime similar and equal to other war crimes. 'I think that is a battle that is still being fought for women in lots of ways. And that shadows the subsequent lives of women, but also of their children, who are very often the product of rape, and that is difficult for the woman and the child and the community that the woman comes from. 'So it seems as if it's thousands of years ago but actually myth isn't thousands of years ago. Myth is applicable to our lives today, and that's always what I want to bring out.' Dame Pat was born in Thornaby-on-Tees, Cleveland, and raised mainly by her grandparents. She began her writing career in her late 30s after studying international history at the London School of Economics and taught history and politics at colleges of further education until 1982.
ITV News
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- ITV News
Author Dame Pat Barker thought honours letter was income tax bill
Author Pat Barker, known for The Regeneration Trilogy, thought the letter announcing her damehood in the King's Birthday Honours was an income tax bill and that HMRC were 'really angry'. Dame Pat, 82, became a CBE in 2000 and is being given her damehood, one of the highest honours in the United Kingdom, for services to literature. The Booker Prize winner has published 16 novels, diving into anti-war themes including trauma and memory. Describing the moment she received the news of her damehood, she said: 'I picked up the envelope from the carpet and the first thing I noticed, what beautiful quality paper it was, and I thought, this is either the income tax getting really angry, or it's something from the Palace or the Cabinet Office. 'Nobody else does that kind of quality of paper. I still sort of had to read the first paragraph several times before it sank in.' Her debut novel, Union Street, was published in 1982 and won her the 1983 Best Of Young British Novelists award. It was later made into the film, Stanley And Iris, starring Jane Fonda and Robert De Niro. She added: 'One of the things that, in spite of everything, I like about the British honour system is the way it records people who do very low profile, working for free, long hours, weeks, months, years, for something that they genuinely believe in and usually unpaid, and for the benefit of other people, and they are the bedrock of the honour system, and they actually are the reason why it is so respected, and knights and dames are just cherries on the top of that cake. 'I am happy to be a cherry.' The author is known for exploring the effects of war in her novels, attributing her grandfather and stepfather as inspiration for some of her most popular books. She said: 'I was very much a war baby. My Victory in Europe Day was my second birthday, and I thought the street parties were for me, as any two year old would. 'I think in my family, there were people who bore the very visible mental and physical injuries of war. 'My stepfather, for example, was in the trenches at 15, my grandfather had a bayonet wound, and he used to get stripped off at the kitchen sink, and the bayonet wound was terrible, very obvious, and he never talked about it. So you've got the two things there that are essential for writers, a story that is obviously present, but which isn't being told. 'The last thing any writer needs is a completed story. What you need as a writer is a mystery. And I had that.' She began writing the Regeneration trilogy in 1991 with the first book following English Lieutenant Billy Prior as he is being treated for shellshock. The book was adapted into a film in 1997 which starred The Two Popes actor Jonathan Pryce and Maurice's James Wilby. In 1993, Dame Pat published the second book in the trilogy, The Eye In The Door, which follows William Rivers, the psychiatrist treating Prior at Craiglockhart Hospital in Edinburgh. She was awarded the Guardian Fiction Prize that same year and in 1995 won the Booker Prize for Fiction for The Ghost Road, the third book in the trilogy, which recounts the final months of the war from alternating perspectives of Billy, as he is about to rejoin the war, and William, who grapples with the work he has done to help injured men at the hospital. More recently, the novelist was shortlisted for The Women's Prize For Fiction in 2019 for her book, The Silence Of The Girls, part of The Woman Of Troy trilogy, which recounts the lives of women living through the Trojan War. It is followed by The Women Of Troy (2021) and The Voyage Home (2024), and sees the author shift her storytelling both in its genre, from historical fiction to myth, and characters, writing from the perspective of women instead of men. She said: 'I was wanting to deal with the experience of women, and specifically with rape as a weapon of war, because that is really what the Trojan trilogy, as it is at the moment, is about and that is also a very up to date, modern area of political and legal debate, making rape a war crime similar and equal to other war crimes. 'I think that is a battle that is still being fought for women in lots of ways. And that shadows the subsequent lives of women, but also of their children, who are very often the product of rape, and that is difficult for the woman and the child and the community that the woman comes from. 'So it seems as if it's thousands of years ago but actually myth isn't thousands of years ago. Myth is applicable to our lives today, and that's always what I want to bring out.' Dame Pat was born in Thornaby-on-Tees, Cleveland, and raised mainly by her grandparents. She began her writing career in her late 30s after studying international history at the London School of Economics and taught history and politics at colleges of further education until 1982.
The Sun
13-06-2025
- Business
- The Sun
Huge city centre Wilko store sat empty for years to undergo major transformation into ‘state-of-the-art attraction'
A MAJOR renovation is set to revive an empty Wilko store in a busy town centre. The Bristol-based site has been empty since the chain closed down in October 2023. 2 2 A new development project could see the 25,000 square foot derelict building on Union Street be put to good use. The vast space has been let to The Climbing Hangar, with the company planning to turn it into a state-of-the-art indoor climbing facility, complete with bouldering facilities, coaching, and a social space for events. In an announcement on their website, the company wrote: "Climbers in Briz have a lot to get excited about" as they expands into their 11th location. They added: "We're on a mission to inspire bolder living through indoor climbing and that means everyone gets in on the action whether they're a first-timer, or a life-longer." They've promised "hundreds of epic climbs" spread over 10 unique climbing grades, plus a 50 degree Kilter board and a 40 degree Tension Board. It gives climbers a range of options suitable for beginners to experts, with more than 300 climbs available in the 26,000 square foot climbing gym. In addition to all of the climbing equipment, the space will also feature a fully equipped strength training gym. Whether you're getting stuck in, or just want to sit back and relax, the space will also boast a cafe, and a calendar of events for the local community. The exciting new development is scheduled to open towards the end of summer. Commercial property consultancy firm Hartnell Taylor Cook arranged the deal on behalf of landlord AEW. Why are so many shops going bust? Richard Saunders, a partner at the firm, told Bristol Live: "We are delighted to have secured The Climbing Hangar for this significant city centre site." "This deal reflects the ongoing shift in large retail spaces towards experience-led occupiers and The Climbing Hangar will be a fantastic addition to Bristol, bringing fresh energy and activity to the area." The company first launched in 2011 in a Liverpool warehouse but has since expanded across the UK, including in Edinburgh, London and Southampton. Eager climbers can sign up early to get exclusive discounts on their monthly membership and the chance to win a free one year membership. With a passion for making the sport accessible, the company offer unlimited climbing for a monthly fee - with no signing on fees, no minimum term contract, and a cancel any time guarantee. With all of their existing stores boasting nearly 5 stars, Bristolians have lots to look forward to. One review for their Plymouth site reads: "I've been coming here for 12 months now and I can't recommend it enough! Climbs to suit all abilities." Another 5 star reviewer at their London branch said: "Incredibly friendly staff, very great vibes and everything is well kept and taken care of." Others praised the social element of the sport, with a range of community-focused events held in the spaces. One said: "Always a great place to hang out with friends and have a good time." The development promises an exciting addition to Bristol's town centre, as high streets up and down the country struggle to survive. Changing consumer habits post-Covid, as well as increased costs, have seen businesses shutting up shop as high streets are left derelict and empty.
