MY FIRST CAR
Writer Kirsty Taylor says her first car was a “banger” of a Volkswagen Polo which set her back some £800.
She said she bought it from a man in Keighley and felt that it wasn’t a good deal.
“I think I was ripped off,” said Kirsty, a performance poet and playwright. “As soon as
I got it a warning light came on. But looking back it changed my life.
I was 24 or 25 and suddenly my life changed. It took me a while to become a driver but it was great. I had just become a teacher and until then I had always been on the bus. Suddenly, the car was freedom for me.”
Kirsty was recently announced as the recipient of the 2024 Kay Mellor Fellowship.
The Fellowship was created in partnership with the award-winning Leeds writer Kay Mellor in 2019 and was first awarded to Bradford writer Kat Rose Martin in 2020.
Through her poetry and spoken word, Kirsty has always been a champion of her home city of Bradford, showcasing and giving voice to its unheard stories. She said: “Having a car was great because I could get to places so easily. I had a cassette tape player and I had so much fun with the car.”
Her work champions those traditionally underrepresented on stage and screen through humour, drama and exploring non-traditional form. She was part of the team who helped Bradford win the coveted Year of Culture for 2025. Her debut play Cashy C’s: The Musical was performed in a non-traditional theatre space – a former frozen food store in Bradford city centre – and was set in a recreated Cash Convertors, exploring the multiple lives of those who passed through the shop.
She now has a Smart car, a four-seater version which often accommodates Kirsty and her greyhound. “I do a lot of driving,” she said. “I even went on a tour of Ireland which was a bit ambitious.”