Author’s aim to showcase best of ‘ undersung’ Leeds
Inanew book, Kim Revill leads readers awayfrom more famed attractions ofLeeds, while sharing entertaininginsightsand culturalanecdotes. reports.
KIM REVILL recalls attending a live podcast by comedian Richard Herring at Leeds’s City Varieties last year.
“He was gently mocking Leeds and asked if Leeds had any places to visit,” she says.
Author of 111 Places in Leeds That You Shouldn’t Miss, Kim went up to him after the show.
“I told him I could think of 111 places in fact, 222 as there is a tip for another place to visit as a footnote in every chapter. I was a bit indignant when people put Leeds down.”
Kim, a features writer and English tutor, who has written for publications in Yorkshire and Brussels, was born in Leeds, moving to the Belgian capital in the late 1990s after studying law.
Her 111 Places book, which she started researching in 2019 and finished writing in February, signalled a welcome return to her birthplace.
She lived in Leeds for block periods as she developed the book, visiting familiar landmarks as well as embarking on a journey of discovery to lesser known parts of the city she still calls home.
“This book is not so much a guide book but a celebration of interesting places in Leeds which have back stories,” she explains.
“It is more of a potted social history book. For instance, the Leeds Pals Memorial wouldn’t really be in traditional guidebooks. Folk might like to visit it yes, as it stands in a hillside in the stunning Yorkshire Dales, but it is what it represents which is really the idea for choosing it.
“These young men went to a bloodbath in the Somme days after socalled training in the tranquillity of the Yorkshire countryside. The memorial keeps these stories alive.
The same, she says, goes for the Barnbow Lasses memorial, in honour of the workers at a First World War munitions factory.
“Relatives might like to visit to lay flowers but it is an important back story to Leeds’ social history. These women did important work in the First World War and some died for it, not in battle but carrying out work on the home front. That should not be forgotten.”
Featuring, among other highlights, a hidden ice rink at the back of a bikers’ cafe, Kim’s book is part of the 111 Places series launched by German- based publisher Emons Verlag in 2008.
“I persuaded [ them] that Leeds should be included,” she says. “More obvious beauties such as Barcelona, Paris, London and New York were already there but I pitched successfully for Leeds because it is an undersung city and totally underrated.”
The challenge, she says, was what to leave out. She chose places that interested her - and so far, they have interested others too.
“In fact, someone wrote to me and said her husband has lived for 68 years in Leeds but he was still learning stuff from the book. I am honoured genuinely, to have people say that to me.”
For Kim, writing the book meant an opportunity to reconnect with Leeds. She missed not just the city itself, but its people and personality.
“It brought a wide- eyed wonderment of childhood back to me when I walked around,” she says. “Living here in Brussels, you would be seen as insane if you struck up a conversation in a supermarket queue. I loved going back to Leeds as you can just strike up a conversation with a stranger.
“It seems a bit strange, but I even miss the abruptness too such as when you don’t realise there is a queue and you are told quite brusquely to: ‘ Get t’ back o’ queue!’”
111 Places in Leeds That You Shouldn’t Miss, with photography by Alesh Compton, is available now. People can buy a copy through the 111 Places website.
It is also available at Waterstones and a number of small independent bookshops in Leeds.