Week 60: Ally

Greetings and salutations. I'm Ally (@AlisonNeale) and, well, I hesitate to say this but (deep breath), I'm from Essex. In my defence, I left at the earliest opportunity and I have lived since then in seven cities in five countries. I love learning foreign languages - hence the country hopping - and studied Spanish at university. I also speak a fair amount of French and Arabic. My passion for language and near-obsession with books and reading led me to a job in publishing, and by a roundabout route I ended up a self-employed copy editor, mostly of academic non-fiction.

I moved to Leeds in December 2010 with my then-partner, but of this I will say no more. Instead, I count my real Leeds life as dating from late July 2012, when I moved into a flat in the city centre. I live alone and work either from home or from the glorious Leeds Library on Commercial Street. I work long hours (to finance my book habit) but spend as much time as possible doing activities, events and cultural-type stuff... or just meeting people for coffee.

I plan to tell you what I love about Leeds and why I stayed here when I could have gone anywhere in the world.

Favourite film: Three Colours Blue.
Favourite book: Cold Comfort Farm, by Stella Gibbons.
Favourite food: cheese probably just trumps chocolate... but only just.