Literary lunch of sporting stars and wartime agents

The biggest cheer of the Olympics in the BBC office went up when Team GB’s footballers were knocked out of the competition.

“There was just this feeling that the football wasn’t in the spirit of the Olympics,” broadcaster Harry Gration told the first Yorkshire Post Literary Lunch of the new season in Harrogate yesterday.

To be involved in the Games, he said, was a privilege.

“It was the most fantastic experience and I’m honoured to have been there when Jess Ennis won her gold – but I was also there when Nicola Adams won hers.

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“Here was a young lady from a very poor background with no sponsorship, but she went out and fought – literally – for her medal. Her smile has lit up the country, and if there was only one good thing about the Olympics it’s that somebody with nothing can aspire to that, and succeed.

“At a time when footballers are earning £300,000-plus per week, it’s something to think about.”

Mr Gration also talked about his book Yorkshire Sporting Heroes where he lists his top 30 Yorkshire sports personalities though he admitted some would argue with the inclusion of Scot Billy Bremner.

Also speaking was Clare Mulley, writer of the first British biography about Christine Granville. Born Krystyna Skarbek in Warsaw, she became one of Britain’s most daring and highly-decorated secret agents during World War II.

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“She was an amazing woman and I hope the book re-balances the view of women as effective special agents,” she said. “While she had an amazing story, spies are told not to leave a paper trail about their lives – so this does make the biographer’s job a difficult one.”