Triumph, tragedy and intrigue in 2011

• THROUGHOUT February and early March I thoroughly enjoyed hounding council officers about what was being done about the run-down Regency Arcade which has become such an eyesore on the Parade. I had the feeling efforts were being made behind the scenes after an ungarded hint from a local councillor. But negotiations were at a delicate stage and I needed to tread the tightrope between not upsetting these but also not being at the end of the public relations queue to find out what was going on. Finally, my efforts paid off and it was revealed the arcade will be converted into a Premier Inn next year.

• THE saddest story I covered this year was the death in of 71-year-old Brenda Hadley who was crossing the newly resurfaced Portland Street at the junction with Regent Street. The junction has long been highlighted as a dangerous spot by local shop-keepers, including Clarke Challis, who rang the Courier the day before Mrs Hadley died to say a number of motorists were having minor bumps and near misses because of loose chippings and the fact that the road markings had not been re-painted. He’d repeatedly tried to tell the local authorities and only turned to his local paper, in desperation, to prophetically warn that somebody was likely to be killed.

• MOST intriguing story of the year came in February when Leamington Art Gallery held an exhibition of children’s book illustrations done by Sir John Tenniel, who drew Alice for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. It turned out that Carroll himself had strong connections with Leamington, where his genteel nieces lived in Albany Terrace up to the 1961. Local people surprised curators at the gallery with their memories and one, who used to do the garden, still had a vase he was given when they left to go into nursing homes.