BBC journalist.
Articles by Sara Royle
The legendary garage in the 'lesbian capital of the north'
By Sara Royle The banners were painstakingly strapped to the ‘Welcome to Sheffield’ signs on the city’s main entry roads. As the cars zoomed past, some of the drivers peered out at the block lettering, checking they’d got it right the first time. ‘Sheffield: Lesbian capital of the north.’ The woman behind the banners, Ros Wall, was just one of three gay women who ran Gwenda’s Garage — one of the only all-female owned garages in the country.
A scalpel and cuts
Betsy Evans knew that she wanted to work in medicine from just 12 years old. “My father was very unwell,” she said. “He had issues with his heart. That’s not why I became a cardiac surgeon but he was in hospital for many months and I saw how significantly transformed he was by good medical care and attention.” The daughter of a doctor (her mother was an anaesthetist), Evans (pictured) would go on to blaze a trail in her field.
‘What are we going to do without carers?’
Unrelenting schedules, poor pay and burnt-out staff leaving in their droves – that’s the picture that’s been painted of the UK’s social care provision by the people that know it best. Speaking to Big Issue North, carers from across the North describe shifts with no breaks, working weeks of up to 70 hours and colleagues leaving for better paid jobs with fewer responsibilities.
A happy homecoming
“It just feels like coming home really.” Braving a bitterly cold December night in Halifax to celebrate the return of the BBC’s multi-Bafta award-winning show Happy Valley, Siobhan Finneran tells me that she “loved” returning to play Clare Cartwright – the recovering alcoholic and heroin addict sister of the programme’s protagonist, Sergeant Catherine Cawood. “I loved it,” the Oldham-born actress says.
Clapped as heroes but now enduring a pay cut
For the first time in more than 100 years, nurses across the UK have voted to strike over pay and patient safety concerns. The Royal College Of Nursing’s (RCN) statutory ballot saw nursing staff at 176 NHS organisations vote in favour of industrial action – including hospitals in Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool. It is anticipated that the first walkout could take place before Christmas, with the mandate to organise strikes running until early May 2023.
All the world’s a stage
Bar the running kit, Huw Selley doesn’t look like a man who’s just run 11 Peak District kilometres. “It was quite nice actually,” he says, barely having broken a sweat. “Beautiful scenery and nicely, gently downhill, not much up.” A nurse from Leeds, he’s one of two runners who have just made their way from Castleton to Hathersage as part of the non-stop Running Out Of Time relay.
New lease of life for Grimsby homes
When Terry Evans and his family moved from Gosport to Grimsby for a fresh start, he thought they had made a mistake. “The house we lived in was absolutely awful,” he recalled. “No skirting boards, the walls were falling apart, no work was being done.” Billed as a three bed, Evans said in reality it was a two bed, with the damp and mould in one of the rooms rendering it unusable for his 10-year-old asthmatic daughter. “Single industry town” “It was absolutely horrific,” he said.
Pornô deepfake: 'As imagens falsas com a minha cara ainda me dão pesadelos'
Uma mulher no Reino Unido que foi vítima de pornografia deepfake — imagens em que se usa computação gráfica para falsificar o rosto de uma pessoa no corpo de outra — está pedindo uma mudança na lei britânica. No ano passado, a poetisa Helen Mort descobriu que imagens suas, sem nenhum conteúdo sexual, haviam sido enviadas para um site pornô. Os usuários do site passaram a editar as fotos, mesclando o rosto de Helen com imagens sexuais explícitas e violentas.
Swans around - Big Issue North
Virginia is 27 years old and already on her third husband. She divides her time between summers in Iceland and winters in Lancashire, where she has become a bit of a local celebrity. In the next couple of weeks – perhaps by the time you read this – Virginia will head south to England. She’ll be accompanied by some of her children, which at the last count were said to total more than 60. Whether she has now moved on to husband number four is news that’s awaited with more than a little interest.
Asylum seekers face eviction
Hundreds could be left homeless amid the second wave of Covid-19, as the Home Office evicts people from asylum accommodation. Migrants charities are hearing from people who have received notices to quit their housing – despite them living in areas under extra measures to combat the virus. In March, it was announced that asylum seekers would not be told to leave their accommodation once their claim or appeal was refused – in order to protect people during the pandemic.
Lemn Sissay: file it under now
I’m waiting in Manchester on the other end of a phone line as Lemn Sissay is stopped on the streets of east London for the second time in 15 minutes. “That’s a guy that keeps stopping me and going ‘I know you from somewhere,’” he says afterwards, with what sounds like a smile on his face. “Can I tell you what it is? He’s seen me on telly. The last time he did it he said ‘I know you from somewhere’ then, as well.
Julian Clary: Bolds encounter
“They don’t even know who I am,” chuckles comedian turned hit kids author Julian Clary, discussing his newest batch of fans. “Children are less cynical but they’re not going to humour you. Writing for them is a bit like doing panto – you’re ostensibly a children’s entertainer but half the audience are adults,” he smiles. “You can do things ambidextrously.” Clary’s two primary fan bases couldn’t be further apart.
In Their Own Words on Apple Podcasts
5 episodes On the evening of March 23, the United Kingdom's Prime Minister announced that the country was going into lockdown. Overnight, living rooms became offices, gardens became outdoor gyms and parents became teachers. Switch on the radio and you'll hear plenty of adults discussing the state of the nation - but what about the kids? How are they feeling? Over the coming weeks you'll hear from children from all over the GMCA area, who have been kind enough to let us listen in on their lockdowns.
Who cares?
I first spoke to this magazine a few weeks ago, when the peak of the coronavirus outbreak was still on the horizon. As a residential care worker working in a home for adults with brain injuries, I was deeply concerned. Shortages of PPE were already an issue, and I was worried about the lack of guidance from the private care provider I worked for about how to deal with worst case scenarios, and how to protect myself and the residents at the home from the virus. Since then, I’ve left my job.
A taste of home
“My favourite is apple crumble,” says Manjeet Kaur as she sneaks sugar into her pancake batter (not a Cracking Good Food-sanctioned recipe but rather one of her own concoctions). “I’m supposed to be being healthy – but I cheat.” Kaur is one of a handful of residents at Willowbank – a homeless provision centre in Fallowfield, Manchester – who has shown up for this week’s cooking class, hosted by social enterprise Cracking Good Food.
GP: homeless patients need more security
A GP working in a surgery dedicated to providing healthcare to homeless people has described how around three-quarters of his patients are there for mental health support, but temporary housing and insecure living arrangements can hinder their recovery. Dr Wan-Ley Yeung, clinical lead for Salford’s homeless GP service, spends three days a week with patients at the service, situated at homeless drop-in centre Salford Loaves and Fishes.
LIVE: HENGE - 19/10/2019
-ACADEMY 2, MANCHESTER- It’s cold. Save for one brief run and the odd cursory hands over my eyes glance at the news, I’ve spent almost all day reading under a blanket. It gets to early evening and my housemates are making bread from scratch. Our home is just one pumpkin spiced beverage away from wholesome autumnal perfection. ‘This hasn’t got anything to do with music,’ I hear you cry. Patience, dear reader. Patience. Back to my kitchen. Dough is rising on the radiator.
ALBUM REVIEW: KARINE POLWART - SCOTTISH SONGBOOK
What do you think of when you think about covers? For me, it’s the following: bad (but enthusiastic) karaoke, buskers (and the cover is almost exclusively Wonderwall) and Michael Bublé crooning away 24 hours a day seven days a week during the Christmas period.
LIVE: BEIRUT - 10/04/2019
-ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER- “The ones that sound like you’re on holiday? I’d have gone to see them!” My mum is 63-years-old. She loves The Beatles and Motown and Take That. She also, it turns out, has been as charmed by Beirut’s swaying melodies as I have and packaged that appreciation up in a turn of phrase that I would have happily stolen for my own. It’s been sunnier than early April probably should be on the day of the gig.
ALBUM REVIEW: HOLY MOLY & THE CRACKERS - TAKE A BITE
Earlier this year, I saw Holy Moly & The Crackers live. “What kind of music was it?” my roommate at the hostel I was staying in asked me. “Sort of…folk rock?” is the guess that I hazard. “There was an accordian. And a violin. I danced a lot.” It was the sort of gig that made me want to immediately book tickets for the next one.
LIVE: SHARON VAN ETTEN - 22/03/2019
-ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER- There’s a chance I’ve seen Sharon Van Etten play live once before. It’s 2014 and I’m in idyllic Wales. It’s the second day of Green Man and I’m riding high on that festival wave of ‘I haven’t showered in longer than is socially acceptable but my hair still looks quite good so I think that evens out the questionable aroma that lingers no matter how many baby wipes I use’. Sharon Van Etten plays the main stage, Brecon Beacons all around us, sunset in motion.
ALBUM: BEIRUT - GALLIPOLI
A confession: ‘The Rip Tide’ was my last Beirut album. I’m not sure how I missed ‘No No No’ (so good they named it thrice) but…I did. Look. I’m sorry, okay? It wasn’t intentional, it just happened. For the keenest of Zach Condon and co. fans, it’s been a few years since the Francophile Americans graced them with new music. For me, it’s been even longer (want to feel old? The Rip Tide came out in 2011. You’re welcome).
ALBUM: JOSHUA BURNSIDE - WEAR BLUEBELLS IN YOUR HAT IF YOU’RE GOIN THAT WAY
Joshua Burnside – Wear Bluebells In Your Hat If You’re Goin That Way I don’t know much about music – I know that’s a strange way to start a review. But I don’t. I am an avid listener, a dedicated dancer and a shower singer. I will happily and indiscriminately switch from Taylor Swift to David Bowie to Bright Eyes. I like to think of my ears as a great leveller.
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