Christopher Fox
It’s 80 years this month since Hull’s pioneering aviator Amy Johnson tragically died. Phil Penfold looks back at her remarkable life and legacy.
York-born composer and conductor Christopher Fox is one of the mentors and organisers involved in the prestigious National Centre for Early Music Young Composers Award.
What’s your first Yorkshire memory? Idoknowthatwehada lot of very happy outings over toward Wharfedale and I used to love swimming in the river, and splashing about behind the waterfalls. There’s a photograph somewhere of me sitting behind the wheel of my father’s beloved Humber car, which had green bodywork. I remember it well – but is that because I’ve seen the picture?
What’s your favourite part of the county – and why? It’s York Minster and to be precise, that part of the beautiful nave where it turns into the corridor to the Chapter House. I used to sing in the choir there as a lad, and there was always a time in the late afternoon when the church was almost deserted, and the light was going, and at that point there was something very spiritual and very special about the place.
What’s your idea of a perfect day, or a perfect weekend, out in Yorkshire? Being absolutely anywhere in the Dales, but if I’m being specific, anywhere around Appletreewick, or West Burton and Ingleborough – there’s just a certain something to the shape of those valleys that I find magical. I used to teach at Ilkley College, many years ago, and a lunch break was never complete without a walk, and a few moments looking wistfully over at the hills in the distance.
Do you have a favourite walk – or view? Anywhere around my new home, in Meltham, and up on West Nab, which is about two miles from the village. It’s not the highest hill in the area, but there’s an amazing view that takes you from Huddersfield in one direction to Pendle Hill and Oldham in another.
Which Yorkshire sportsman, past or present, would you like to take for lunch? It’s that incredible Bradfordborn cricketer Adil Rashid, He’s a firstrate bowler and he’s always achieving things that look totally impossible. Adil was also part of the England squad that won the 2019 World Cup. He’s only the third Yorkshire-born Asian lad to play for the county, and the first of Pakistani heritage. What he does on the pitch is quite extraordinary.
Which Yorkshire stage or screen star, past or present, would you like to take for dinner? Dame Judi Dench. It helps that she and I were both born in York, and that we share a common pride in our birthplace.
If you had to name your Yorkshire ‘hidden gem’, what would it be? Tucked away, and just off Goodramgate in York, is the medieval church of Holy Trinity, in the shadow of the Minster and with its own little churchyard. Some parts of the building date back to the 12th century, but most of it is 15th, and there are some stunning old box pews as well as some fine stained glass.
If you could choose somewhere, or some object, from or in Yorkshire to own for a day, what would it be? Headingley cricket ground, with a good match scheduled for the day.
What do you think gives Yorkshire its unique identity? The landscape and the geology – the rocks on which we stand. And, of course, the people – having lived and worked in many places both here and abroad, I really do value people who tell you what they truly think.
Do you have a favourite restaurant, or pub? When I worked in Bradford, I had many memorable meals at the Karachi Social Club. It’s a classic curry house with no frills and unbelievably good prices.
Do you have a favourite food shop? I am devoted to Fat Rascals, so it has to be Bettys.
How do you think that Yorkshire has changed, for better or for worse, in the time that you’ve known it? It may be some time back,
but so many of us are still very angry at the way the government of the day took away mining, steel and most heavy industry almost overnight. Things have moved on, but there are many who will never forgive that cavalier attitude to an entire region. On the plus side, there is so much diversity and communities are the better for that.
If you had to change one thing in, or about Yorkshire, what would that be? The idiotic ring and through-roads of the late Sixties and Seventies, which were pushed through by planners who patently hadn’t got a clue about proper, logical, planning. The new highways had no respect at all for the buildings that were in their way, and so many were demolished. Close the roads, rebuild everything as it was.
Who is the Yorkshire person that you most admire? Captain Cook, and for many reasons, which include his navigational skills, his incredible draughtsmanship in his charts, and his ability to command a ship without being a tyrant. I’m not so sure about his roaming around planting British flags everywhere, “discovering” places where the original inhabitants were told that they were now under new rule, but that is another discussion.
Has Yorkshire influenced your work? Most definitely, because to me, as a musician and a composer, it has offered such a tapestry of sounds that come from the landscape, the environment and the people. They are all, in different ways, bound into what I create.
Name your favourite Yorkshire book/author/artist/CD/ performer.?I’ve always loved the wonderful voice of Dame Janet Baker, and listening to her is such a joy.
Then there’s Sally Wainwright, the screenwriter, whose skills in storytelling are just incredible.
If a stranger to Yorkshire only had time to visit one place, it would be? York. I love the shape of the city, the buildings, and the history of the people who made it. There’s a sense of continuity here.
■ Entrants to the NCEM Young Composers Award must be 25 or under, and resident in the UK. The closing date for registration is February 19. www.youngcomposersaward. co.uk/2021
Just over ninety years ago, Amy Johnson made headlines around the world after breaking the record for a solo air flight to Australia. The Hull-born aviator had flown in Jason, her Gypsy Moth plane, and her audacity caught the world’s imagination. Aviation was still in its infancy and Amy – just 27 – wasn’t only a pioneering pilot, she was also a woman in what was very much a man’s world. On her return she was laden with honours, including a CBE from King George V and gold medals from both the Royal Aero Club and the Society of Engineers.
Almost overnight she became one of the most famous women in the world, what today we might call a ‘‘celebrity superstar’’. Though as Janice Smith, curator of the Sewerby Hall Museum near Bridlington, points out, fame back in the 1920s was not the same as it is today. “She was lauded rather differently – the song Amy, Beautiful Amy was recorded by many top bands of the time, and it was played everywhere,” says Smith.
Sewerby Hall (now a Grade I listed building) was acquired by the local town council in 1934, and when it opened as a museum two years later the ribbon was cut by (who else?), Amy Johnson.
Today, Johnson is commemorated in many ways – Hull has two statues of her, there’s the
Amy Johnson Building at Sheffield University (where she studied for her degree), and there are roads, schools and an annual lecture in her name, given by a guest speaker at the Royal Aeronautical Society. And at Sewerby, there is an impressive collection of her belongings, and other memorabilia, much of it donated by her father, in 1958, while the Museums archive at Hull also has much material on her life and times.
Production of a biopic movie (They Flew Alone)