Yorkshire Post Literary Lunch: Tales of family pride and self-reliance characterise opening anniversary event

When her mother died, Sue Johnston found a whole box full of press cuttings and stage programmes chronicling her career. At that moment, she realised her mother had actually been rather proud of her daughter.

“She never had photographs of me around,” recalled the actress at yesterday’s Yorkshire Post Literary Lunch in Harrogate, the first of the 2011-12 season and the start of the illustrious event’s 50th anniversary.

“There were pictures of my dog, my son, even Paul McCartney – but not me. When I found all the things she’d kept, even scrapbooks I’d made as a child – that was when I realised she was proud of me.”

As well as discussing her iconic television roles such as Sheila Grant in Brookside and Barbara in The Royle Family, Ms Johnston was there to talk about her book of memoirs – aptly titled Things I Couldn’t Tell My Mother.

“I never intended to do it, but I was privileged to be with my mother for the last few days of her life. I had time to do a lot of thinking and practically wrote the book in my head. It was a difficult relationship but I regard my childhood as happy – I’m glad I had the chance to tell her that.”

Also speaking was writer and broadcaster Pam Ayres.

Renowned for her comic perception of life and poetry collections, her latest book is a personal memoir called The Necessary Aptitude.

“The title came about because, in all my early jobs, that’s what people kept telling me I didn’t have,” she said. “It’s a book about my upbringing. When I look back, I feel tremendous affection for it. I was one of the baby-boom generation, born into respectable families who were hard-up after the War. We believed in self-doctoring. There wasn’t much went wrong that our parents didn’t try to treat with some kind of poultice or the ever-present Sloan’s Linament.”

The third speaker was Wakefield-born Carol Ann Lee, author several books that present topics such as the story of Anne Frank and the Moor Murders in a straightforward, factual way.

“I aim to tell a story,” she said. “I want readers to make their own minds up, so it’s not for me to suggest a view or opinion – it’s about the facts.”

She continues this approach in Witness, the story of Myra Hindley’s brother-in-law.

Married to her sister, David Smith found himself witnessing the last of the infamous murders and, in spite of being chief prosecution witness at the trial, was still vilified by the public.