Straight Talk: Life lessons from not getting the A level grades I wanted

This opinion column is written by Marilyn Stowe. Marilyn built the largest family law firm in the UK, which she ran from Harrogate. She sold her firm in 2017 to private equity left the law and is now a writer and speaker.

A level results are out. Across Harrogate and surrounding districts there are a high number of  triumphant students. Hats off to them after two nightmare years. However, that might not be the case for every student, not accepted to their university or chosen course, wondering what to do next.

Do not despair! I doubt any student received the curt message I did from my sixth form tutor: “What are you going to do now?”

With poor results I lost my place to read law. It was my own fault. Why work hard? I was always a high achiever without much effort. On this occasion, I learned with a terrible shock. Hard work was required.

I finally obtained a place to read law by the skin of my teeth, at Leeds University, but to start a year later. I gratefully accepted the offer determined never to fail again.

I spent the year working at Boots in Leeds to earn some money, learning to type at night school and then working for my uncle, a criminal law specialist solicitor in Leeds.

I had my eyes opened to a world I had no idea existed. I typed letters to clients, and answered the phone, chatting to clients charged with offences that blew my mind, I went to prisons and met murderers and burglars, rapists and thieves. I met men and women with no chance in life from the get go. I spent a day listening to a woman on remand in prison, who described how she had murdered her baby in temper, repeatedly throwing it against the bedroom ceiling, as it went blind and slowly died. As she spoke, insects fell out of her long unkempt hair on a table between us.

I also assisted clients buying and selling houses, and even (under supervision) drafted their wills.

In a solicitor’s office I saw life in the raw and, as tough as it was, I loved it.

By the time I started university, I had a head start on the green students straight from school who had no idea what might be facing them once outside the cocoon called university. I knew I had found my future career and determined there would be no further slip ups. I flogged myself, then I went to law school to study for my finals, followed by a two year training contract with a solicitor specialising in corporate work, and finally I qualified. On my first day, proud as punch, I learned another hard lesson: no amount of studying can ever beat experience.

I was sent by a junior partner to apply for bail in a criminal case he knew he would lose and I was expendable. I had no clue what to say in front of a packed court of experienced criminal lawyers. All I could do was stand up, say in a terrified voice, “I am instructed to apply for bail” then sit down again, puce with embarrassment. Did it put me off? Short term it did. But law was my hard earned career and nothing was going to stop me. A couple of years later I found my own niche working in family law and never looked back. The stress never stopped but overall my career in law was worth the initial failure, embarrassment and sheer hard work.

So, if you have come up against a road block take heart.  With enough determination you will always get there. Some of my colleagues never went to university and worked in law firms, studying part time. They too made it. Arguably they had the advantage. It was cheaper and they had experience of what they were reading about.

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Stray Views: has Marilyn Stowe heard of climate change?

Stray Views is a weekly column giving you the chance to have your say on issues affecting the Harrogate district. It is an opinion column and does not reflect the views of the Stray Ferret. See below for details on how to contribute.

Does Marilyn not know about climate change?

Does Marilyn Stowe really not understand? The growth in cycling provision in Leeds or Harrogate is not to provide for the few people that already cycle.

The intention is to persuade a lot more people to cycle. Does she not know about climate change and melting polar ice?

Her article on Stray Ferret is just so incredible.

Andrew Willoughby, Knaresborough

Why prioritise cyclists when Harrogate needs parking?

I wrote to North Yorkshire County Council twice last year about the experiences of towns that have installed harmful, counter-productive cycling lanes and low-traffic neighbourhoods.

I wrote that the planners of those towns might be forgiven for not anticipating how damaging the reality of their schemes was going to be – because there were no precedents. Our councils here have no such excuse, not with the evidence from other towns writ large since 2017.

Throughout five different journeys by car, in and out of town, Monday to Friday last week, I counted 12 cyclists — in mild and sunny weather. We really don’t have many homegrown cyclists – for good reason.

The hills on Harrogate’s town-centre access routes, together with wet and windy weather, discourage cycling for local residents. Dedicated cycling lanes will never change that.

It is different for hobby cyclists. They are mostly the ones to be seen on high days and holidays, often grouped on the roads, identifiable by their distinctive apparel and indifferent to bad weather. They are rarely spotted using our shops and cafes or services.

Are we really going to make changes that prioritise cyclists over our entire population, when our town is in dire need of footfall, residents and visitors to shop and pile goods into their cars, or to drive into town to enjoy cafes and restaurants again? Surely we should be welcoming all comers and that means providing plentiful parking if we are to support the prestigious services and the famous retail heart of Harrogate.

On account of working-from-home there are already fewer cars coming into town, and perhaps fewer cyclists – a trend that may progress. Changes are coming and I think we should wait and see.

Jacky Little, Harrogate

Ripon people have chips on both shoulders

The attitudes expressed by both Harrogate borough councillors Swift and McHardy are insulting to the Scottish Nationalist Party, which exists to promote and advance the people of Scotland, and have nothing at all to do with Harrogate or Ripon.

Councillor McHardy’s response is quite typical of the constant whinging from people in Ripon, which is completely unwilling to accept that in 1974 Ripon was absorbed into the Harrogate district. We fail to see any similar grouses from other towns in the district, such as Knaresborough, Boroughbridge or Pateley Bridge, who seem prepared to work with Harrogate Borough Council to get the best deal for their locality.

Ripon seems to live in the past and many Ripon city councillors, who incidentally are often Harrogate borough councillors and North Yorkshire county councillors too, seem to regularly be elected on the basis of their anti-Harrogate Borough Council attitudes.

It’s often said that Ripon people are well-balanced because they have a chip on both shoulders.

John Edmonstone, Ripon

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Do you have an opinion on the Harrogate district? Email us at letters@thestrayferret.co.uk. Please include your name and approximate location details. Limit your letters to 350 words. We reserve the right to edit letters.

 

Marilyn Stowe: They’ve made a dog’s breakfast of cycle lanes in Leeds

This opinion column is written by Marilyn Stowe. Marilyn built the largest family law firm in the UK, which she ran from Harrogate. She sold her firm in 2017 to private equity left the law and is now a writer and speaker.

Moving my law firm to The Old Courthouse on Raglan Street Harrogate in 2004,  I ventured into new territory. It happened as a result of being thrown onto the pavement and robbed by three masked men on a dark evening in December as I was leaving my East Leeds office. One was screaming ‘kick her head in’ as he held an iron bar over my head. Traumatised and concerned it could happen to clients and staff, the decision was made overnight to close and reopen elsewhere.

What a godsend the Old Courthouse proved to be. Within a few years, we were unusually mentioned in a court report about the increase in work we had introduced to the Harrogate County Court, situated in the next street.

Our beautiful Victorian building was a draw in itself, but so was the parking it provided. We could comfortably park 14 cars, and for several of our clients who required absolute privacy, they could park and enter by a back door, no-one the wiser. For others, as our firm grew, on street parking was a boon. It was so convenient.

Visitors to the office could easily slip in and out. And as we grew, many of our competitors also decided Harrogate was the place to be. It’s no coincidence there are so many family law firms in Harrogate. But I thought, if our model worked in Leeds and in Harrogate, it might work elsewhere – and thus, staying ahead of the competition, I grew a local family law firm to the largest in the country, which I sold in 2017.

Thanks Harrogate.

But let me repay the favour, as I still remain ‘the landlady’ at The Old Courthouse. Rumour has it that bicycles, not cars, are now ‘de rigeur’ and the days of cars, even green and electric as they soon will be, are numbered in Harrogate. ‘Don’t bring your car into Harrogate, or car share if you must’ we are told. ‘Catch the bus, or cycle in.’

It’s woke madness.

In Leeds the local council, having spent millions on empty cycle lanes, recently turned Leeds centre into a dog’s breakfast. Full speed ahead if you happen to be a cyclist. It’s a nightmare to manoeuvre. Are there really that many cyclists around? How many out of town shoppers or workers are going to voluntarily struggle with flimsy bikes, punctures, cycle baskets, risk terrible accidents, or park/ride in a bus with our relentless weather? Or pay for daily expensive parking? Why on earth would they?

Leeds has unwittingly created the perfect opportunity for the entire Harrogate economy to take advantage and boom. It’s as easy to turn towards Harrogate than Leeds Centre and still be welcomed with open arms.

If not, it will happen to Harrogate too. People going to shop, seek professional advice, eat out, don’t do it en masse by bus, or worse, by bike. Bikes are for those lucky to live nearby and/or hardy enough to relish the distance, the hills and cold wind into Harrogate.

So let’s take advantage of the clueless elsewhere, who have never had their own skin in the game, and run their own businesses.

Let’s support the motorist and support the entire Harrogate economy.

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