Library Love

Hurroo! Hurrah! Very excited that my mum has just bought me a stay at Gladstone’s Library for my Christmas present. Just over the England/Wales border, Gladstone’s is the UK’s only residential library.

I will be attending an event on deaf history. A character in my new novel is deaf – so I will value discussing that with others attending the event. My grandfather, William Warr, was deaf and willed me his small library. He is the main reason I became an avid young reader, and hence a writer.

Like many readers and writers, I am a serious fan of libraries. My own library-love experiences include the British Library* and the Bodleian and the many libraries where I have been welcomed to speak about my historical novels, including the London Guildhall Library and Downham Market Library in England; Pembroke Dock and Tenby in Wales; and Laguepie Mediatheque, Parisot Library, and the Villefranche de Rouergue English Library in France. 

You might be interested to read my booklist on lovely libraries and idiosyncratic bookshops on Shepherd.com

East Barnet Library (now closed) was the library I ravished my way through as a child and teenager. Do tell me about your library love!

Thank you, Mum!

*I am horrified by the damage done by the recent cyber-attack on the British Library and wish the staff well in their recovery efforts. I’m not inclined to malice, but an attack on a library is unconscionable. I do wish the doers their just deserts.