One of the delights of doing this job is that it presents you with the opportunity of meeting all sorts of people from all walks of life. It would be hard to find a more rich panoply of life than in this area.

Last Saturday was a reminder of what a great place - warts and all - Keighley is. Wandering around on Gala day is good for the soul. It began with the delight of seeing so many people queuing at a bookshop to buy the autobiography of a local hero and listening to their comments.

Then, there was the joy of watching the crowning of the Gala Queen and the excitement and enthusiasm as the floats set off. The downside was of course the totally unacceptable situation of eggs being thrown at the Gala Queen and also the amount of litter left behind in some parts of the town.

Even more baffling was the attitude of others who objected to paying money to get into the park - no doubt they spend money on amusements.

The Gala is for charity, after all. A lot of people put in a great deal of work without any thought of reward to make it a success.

In the park - and yes I did pay to get in - I met a number of local characters including another local author who runs a grocers shop in Oxenhope. No doubt the inquesting is still going on as to whether it was a good or bad Gala day. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it was an honour to be present when a toast was drunk to the memory of Geoffrey Reeday.

I'm looking forward to other tasks during Keighley Festival. Well done to all concerned.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.