Can any good thing come out of Hull?...;o) - Quite a few good things, actually...

Here are some:

1) The great poems Philip Larkin wrote while he lived in Hull. My favourite collections are The Less Deceived and The Whitsun Weddings. I am listening to a Radio 4 The Archive Hour radio programme about him as I type. I have an LP record - produced by the Marvell Press - of him reading The Less Deceived collection. He's certainly one of my favourite poets, and has been so for most of my adult life. And I do so like to hear him reading them.

2) Andrew Marvell - 17th century poet and parliamentarian. His most famous, most loved and most anthologised poem is To His Coy Mistress

3) Last month's report in the Telegraph: Anti-depressants 'no better than dummy pills' about research by a Hull University team led by Prof Irving Kirsch. - I fervently hope this will save a lot of people having their lives/health damaged by these harmful, useless drugs.

4) William Wilberforce's work to make known, and to bring an end to, the evils of slavery. He retired from politics in 1825 and died on 29 July 1833, shortly after the act to free slaves in the British empire passed through the House of Commons. There is a Wilberforce museum in Hull.

5) Alan Plater - the great television playwright who, though born in Jarrow, was brought up in Hull.

And here is a website with loads of information about Hull and its people, past and present: http://www.hullwebs.co.uk/index.htm