Letter from York

Almost two years ago I moved to York from Suffolk, where I had lived for well over ten years. It was a wrench, as I knew I would miss a lot of things, but it had to be. One of the things I missed, and still do, is direct involvement with Suffolk Book League (SBL) which I joined in 2014 becoming a member of the committee the following year. For much of the last ten years I’ve been the administrator for the SBL Facebook Group page and have recently seen at a distance SBL grow from strength to strength, and Ipswich becoming a ‘literary town’ aided by last October’s successful Book Festival. Suffolk continues to be a ‘literary county’ with a host of festivals each year.

So, have I come to live in a ‘literary city’? The answer on the face of it is no. Before I moved to Suffolk I lived not far from Norwich for ten years and that is no doubt a ‘literary city’. In fact it is officially a ‘City of Literature.’ York, on the other hand, is an ‘archaeological city’ and is having a second go at achieving ‘World Heritage Status’ for its ‘historic urban core’. I wasn’t too disappointed, as my early career was in the heritage sector. Soon after I arrived in York, I joined the U3A Archaeology Group and, as these things happen, at the beginning of last year took over the leadership. I mention this because in December I stood down after a year and for my swan song I gave a lecture on ‘Archaeology and Fiction,’ discussing my inclination to get involved in ‘Archaeology and Imagination.’ I’ll see how it goes.

I don’t mean to belittle York’s literary scene completely. It is beginning to poke its head above the parapet of the city walls, historic buildings, Roman and Viking Festivals and archaeological excavations. The city does have a literary festival, run by a charity and sponsored by York’s ‘other university’, York St John. It also has a ‘Festival of Ideas’, whose Patron is Michael Morpurgo. It is organised through the University of York and has some literary events during its two week run in June. There are other venues: pubs which hold open mic poetry events, creative writing groups, a Waterstones hosting the usual line-up of popular authors, a small but very welcoming LGBT+ bookshop/café and some very good second-hand bookshops which are declining in number. The Racecourse in the city hosts two nationally famous book fairs in January and September. York has a good library service run by the City Council and there is also the ‘York Bibliographical Society’ a little known organisation, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2026 and which could morph into something like SBL if it so wished. On the horizon is the opening of a Toppings Bookshop not far from the Minster. It hosted various literary events in a number of different venues in 2025, during a delay due to planning regulations. I hope they still do their complimentary coffee.

I think I’ve been lucky to move to a ‘city of culture’ which maybe just needs a bit of rebalancing in its promotion.   

Jeff Taylor