The Librarian

by Salley Vickers

In 1958, Sylvia Blackwell, fresh from one of the new post-war Library Schools, takes up a job as children's librarian in a run down library in the market town of East Mole.

Her mission is to fire the enthusiasm of the children of East Mole for reading. But her love affair with the local married GP, and her befriending of his precious daughter, her neighbour's son and her landlady's neglected grandchild, ignite the prejudices of the town, threatening her job and the very existence of the library with dramatic consequences for them all.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Books About Books, Historical, Romance, Book Club, British Literature

384 pages, Paperback

First published April 26, 2018

About the author

Salley Vickers was born in Liverpool, the home of her mother, and grew up as the child of parents in the British Communist Party. She won a state scholarship to St Paul’s Girl’s School and went on to read English at Newnham College Cambridge.

She has worked, variously, as a cleaner, a dancer, an artist’s model, a teacher of children with special needs, a university teacher of literature, and a psychoanalyst. Her first novel, ‘Miss Garnet’s Angel’, became an international word-of-mouth bestseller. She now writes full time and lectures widely on many subjects, particularly the connections between, art, literature, psychology and religion.

Her principal interests are opera, bird watching, dancing, and poetry. One of her father's favourite poets, W.B.Yeats, was responsible for her name Salley, (the Irish for 'willow') which comes from Yeats’s poem set to music by Benjamin Britten 'Down by the salley gardens'.

Reviews

[Melindam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strictly speaking, this is more of a 3,5 star read when all is said and done despite my loving the story and the setting. I mean a book about books and a children's library... simply irresistible.

There were parts where I would have given 5 stars without hesitation, but the end was spoiled for me.

The story was set at the end of the 1950s and I got totally immersed in it, with its small town, its bittersweet, though at the same time very humdrum storylines, the library and the characters: both the sympathetic and the nasty ones. And then came the ending or epilogue or part 2 as the author called it. The story was suddenly cut without proper resolution and out-of-the-blue I was dragged back to the present, some 50 years later, where 2 characters, grown old, met and then kind of obscurely discussed what had happpened back then. Well, I won't call it cheap, but it was just sooooo, sooooo out of tune and it made me disappointed. It's like you were listening to a Mozart Symphony and after the conclusion of the 3rd movement, the track suddenly changes to, let's say, Schönberg. You need a completely different mindset & mood, which you are just not up to.

It felt, like the author suddenly grew tired of it all and just dumped that hasty ending on the reader. It was rather anticlimactic. :(

Despite my personal regret, I would still recommend this book, because it was a lovely reading experience for most of the time.

[Jo (The Book Geek) · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Librarian, by Salley Vickers. This is a book that boasts a plot centred around a library and a certain librarian called Sylvia Blackwell. With the odd book reference thrown in too, what's not to love? Well, most of it actually.

The plot was so tongue in cheek, it was almost unbearable. Everything that was going on was tedious, and sent me on a yawn binge. The characters were not developed to the standard that I would expect, and I didn't like any of them to care about their fates. The love story was twee, and the doctor was a dick.

The epilogue was borderline disastrous. It skipped fifty years into the future, and really, it was a pointless twenty pages. I'm almost sad that I didn't enjoy this, but, I'm more relieved that this is over.

[Shirley Revill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed listening to this audiobook which was set in the 1950's.
Easy to read but very hard to put down.

[Amanda - Mrs B's Book Reviews · Rating 3 out of 5]

* https://mrsbbookreviews.wordpress.com
3.5 stars
The Librarian, written by Salley Vickers, is a dream novel if you are a booklover. It is of course set predominately in a library and follows the journey of Sylvia Blackwell, a young woman who takes up the position of a Children’s Librarian in a declining library. The story that gently unfolds is one of friendship, love, aspirations and the power of books.

In the year 1958, a twenty five year old woman, Sylvia Blackwell, leaves her life in Swindon for a new one in the small market town of East Mole. Sylvia has scored a position as a Children’s Librarian in the quaint little town’s library. No sooner has Sylvia settled into her new post when love comes into her life, in the form of a local married man. This causes scandal in East Mole and threatens her much loved position. At the same time as Sylvia negotiates her feelings for the married man, she also develops a relationship with his daughter and the son of her neighbour. Over the course of the novel, these relationships grow and change. Sylvia also faces a new threat in the form of pressures over the continued existence of the library and her position. The Librarian is a book that looks at human relationships and reminds of how our lives can be enhanced by books.

Salley Vickers is an author I was yet to explore until the opportunity came my way to review her latest novel, The Librarian. I have heard of the notable author of The Cleaner of Chartres and after reading this novel, I have made a pact to seek out The Cleaner of Chartres sooner rather than later. I selected this title to read based on the title and setting alone. I was rewarded with a fine read indeed.

The appeal of The Librarian for me personally immediately came from the presentation of the hard copy of the book itself. The Librarian is one of those books that is an absolutely delight to have between your hands. The cover design is exquisite. It is embossed with a background print of a library and woven around this is a vine like leaf design, which is embossed with decadent gold leaves. Once I opened the book itself, I discovered inside the front cover is a print that I noted is from the Victorian and Albert Museum and it’s simply gorgeous! Now that I have sold you the appearance of the book it is time to talk mechanics!

Salley Vickers is obviously a skilled writer in the fiction field. The Librarian is grounded well in her time period (1958) and the attention to detail in terms of her setting comes across as authentic. I enjoyed this aspect of the novel very much. Vickers is also acutely aware of the moral codes, social changes happening and the shifting social attitudes of this time. Vickers is conscientious in inserting these key details into her novel.

In terms of the characters that appear in The Librarian, Vickers has a firm grasp on her character set. From the very well drawn lead Sylvia, through to the secondary characters, each has been outlined with care. I enjoyed the interactions between the lead and the younger side characters, it was a pleasure to read. Overall, I found Sylvia to be quite an inspiring young woman for her time and I was quite jealous of her position as a Children’s Librarian.

The plot featured in The Librarian was easy to follow and reader friendly. There are a few problems that arise for our characters and I liked the way in which Salley Vickers approached these issues. There was plenty of depth and interest related to the main themes presented in this delightful novel. Vickers also presents a nice resolution to her new novel, which I appreciated.

What I will draw from The Librarian is simply the joy of reading and what the act of imparting a passion for books with others can do to transform lives. No matter the time, or place, books, our libraries and the important caretakers of our libraries have a vital role in all communities. The Librarian is a passionate story that will bring a ray of sunshine to your day, especially if you are a bookworm!

*I wish to thank Penguin Books Australia for providing me with a free copy of this book for review purposes.

[Lost In My Own World Of Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

O título e a capa chamaram-me logo à atenção. Adoro livros que falem sobre livros.

Neste livro ficamos a conhecer Sylvia, uma bibliotecária que se desloca para trabalhar numa pequena localidade.

Logo que chega à sua nova casa conhece pessoas e começa a criar relações com as mesmas. Cada pessoa tem a sua personalidade e Sylvia acaba por criar laços com cada uma à sua maneira.

Sylvia adapta-se muito bem à comunidade e não desiste de lutar pelo que acredita. Gosta muito de crianças e acredita que para cada criança existe um livro.

É muito especial ver a luta de Sylvia pelos direitos das crianças ao tentar mudar algumas coisas e trazer coisas novas para esta pequena comunidade.

Sylvia transmite muito a ideia essencial de ter um livro na nossa vida e de que ter hábitos de leitura torna-se essencial ao desenvolvimento.

Este livro é muito especial. Ao longo da leitura é dada referência a diversos livros que tornaram tudo especial.
Este livro tem um ritmo lento para se ler com calma e apreciar cada momento que nos transmite.

É um livro que transmite uma sensação aconchegante. Dá-nos mesmo a sensação que estamos numa vila rodeados de pessoas diferentes mas especiais e, especialmente rodeados de livros.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer · Rating 3 out of 5]

’It’s not “weird”, Alex. There was a move to close the Children’s Library and Granny was all mixed up with it somehow. Now it’s threatened with closure again so she’s agreed to speak at an event which they hope might help to keep the library open.’ ‘I don’t see why we need libraries,’ Alex said. ‘You can get anything you want off the internet.’ His sister, who was of an age to enjoy going against a popular tide, sighed audibly and their mother said, ‘Yes, but how do you know what to look for? That’s why libraries are so important. Without the library, Granny might not have become a writer herself.’ ......

...... My own life was transformed by one young woman who worked in this library, Miss Sylvia Blackwell, who, single-handed, helped me to enter worlds and find the words to describe them that I should never otherwise have found.

I came to this book due to it being chosen by my Book Group which I have resolved to re-attend in 2019 as part of my move back from an online to offline reading experience.

The book is the latest by the author of the Apocryphal, Venetian inspired “Miss Garnet’s Angel” - the only other book of hers I have read.

It is a book which clearly means a lot to the author - inspired by her own childhood experience of libraries and the librarian who infused her with a life long love of stories.

The book is set in a small Wiltshire town East Mole. Sylvia Blackwell moves to the town from Swindon when she is appointed to the library and sets out to reinvigorate the dilapidated children’s library she discovers, in the face of something between apathy and hostility from her boss. She lives in one of a small row of cottages and befriends one of her neighbouring families (with two precocious and interchangeable young twin girls and Sam, an extremely bright 11 year old for whom the Grammar School system seems designed). Her busybody landlady asks her to tutor her quiet and struggling 11 year old granddaughter Lizzie, which she does with Sam’s assistance.

Two things upset the equilibrium: Sylvia starts an affair with the local Doctor - Hugh Bell - and his daughter Marigold starts to influence Tom; the neighbour living between Sylvia and Sam’s family starts to complain about Sam’s behaviour and implicates Sylvia with consequences for her and the children’s library.

The book in a large part acts as a homage to the books the author herself loved in her childhood and indeed ends with a list of “Recommended Reading from East Mole Library” based around those books, which feature in the main text as Sylvia recommends them to the children and, in some cases, adults of East Mole.

There are also the occasional links between the books and children’s reading - although I had perhaps hoped for a more meta-fictional approach (drawing on plot elements from the novels) than eventually materialised.

Some examples:

When a character fails to match the second identity which seems to have been heavily telegraphed:

By rights, Miss Crake should have been the Trustee. If this was a children’s book she would be, she thought crossly.

Sylvia and Hugh’s on-off relationship (with Sylvia always seemingly willing to give him one last chance) is finally broken off on her side due to his reaction to a children’s book he claims to have read on her recommendation proving his duplicity towards her.

Hugh had lied to her. She knew this as surely as she had ever known anything. He had not bothered to read, or not all through, I Capture the Castle, with its bittersweet ending, where a girl’s love in the end comes to nothing.

A childhood fascination with Treasure Island and it’s piratical sense of justice plays a crucial plot role.

And at the book’s finale the author, through the older characters looking back reflects on the relationship of Sylvia and Dr Bell and its failure to reach any satisfactory resolution.

Elizabeth could see them in her mind’s eye, the slight fair-haired woman with the grey-green eyes with the tall man in horn-rimmed specs, almost as if it was a memory she had forgotten or laid aside. In one of her books they would have found each other, finally, sometime, somewhere.

The book has a number of flaws, flaws that the book itself acknowledges but cannot altogether excuse.

After what I thought was a promising start I groaned inwardly when I realised the way the predictable plot would develop (rather than the more meta fictional approach I had hoped for).

This is madness, she said to herself. I’m involved with a married man. What a cliché ......

.... It’s a cliché to say your wife doesn’t understand you but I hope you’ll forgive my saying that Jeanette doesn’t fully understand me.

The character of Hugh Bell rather preposterous and his philosophical musings tedious

Is this too unbearably pompous?’

And the rather overly precocious characters of the eleven year old children don’t seem to ring true or consistent (switching from re-enacting Black Spot to what is effectively an 11 year old psychological love triangle)

He’s an unusual child with an unusually well-developed political sense

Albeit the author is I think also making a point, albeit not a particularly well argued one, that children, just like children’s literature can offer a sense of insight and perspective, and describe or experience real love.

Only fools disregard children’s literature. Clarity of vision is shed with childhood but one can sometimes recover a glimpse of it in the best children’s literature.

Aloud she said, ‘Myself, I think children know more or at least better about love than adults. It’s part of the magic for them. Look at Tom’s Midnight Garden.’

And that latter book features in perhaps the strangest part of the book a twice visited digression into a theory around Junk DNA and its role in some form of intuition and communication which could perhaps be best described as Junk Science.

A modern day section, with grandparents does allow for us to follow the fate of the characters. It also more importantly enables Vickers to tie the book to her own story. Also though and rather rather disappointingly it ties up some loose ends and even some mere hints of plot (for example a sidestory involving a young lock-keeper) whose lack of clear resolution was hitherto the most impressive literary aspect of the book.

One thing I found interesting was what I saw as a strong link with Penelope Fitzgerald’s “The Bookshop”, albeit not a link I have seen directly confirmed in any interviews or reviews and not one which can I think be made on the grounds of literary merit, in light of my preceding comments.

The authors are linked. Vickers career received a significant career boost when her debut novel “Miss Garnet’s Angel” was described by Fitzgerald as “subtle, unexpected and haunting”. Vickers, herself a psychotherapist before her writing career, picked “The Bookseller” as one of her favourite psychological novels.

What I think the books have in common is the sense of an idealistic outsider, motivated by a love of books and desire to spread the joy of reading, being opposed by small minded members of the local small town community (Wiltshire here taking the place of Suffolk) who close ranks against her. Vickers I believe was inspired in revisiting this idea by the events of Brexit. In both books a classic but banned novel (here Henry Miller’s “Tropic of Cancer” taking the place of Nabokov’s “Lolita”) plays a catalytic role in the protagonists downfall.

Overall an entertaining if flawed novel but one with an important message.

As you can tell, I am a passionate, a passionate, supporter of libraries, especially for children who might otherwise have no access to the resources of children’s literature. Children are the citizens of the future and what they are fed and nourished on will form the destiny of our world and the destiny of our beleaguered planet. We have a duty, a moral duty, to ensure that not only the stomachs of our children are fed but also their imaginations. We do not’ –here she paused and swept a glance around her audience –‘we emphatically do not want to find that we have reached such a state of dearth in our society that we must provide food banks for the imagination as well as, as we so regrettably have to do today, for the physical body. Up and down the country there are local libraries, granaries of rich supplies, potential feasts of nourishment, often gifted, as this library was, by benefactors for the good of children, their children and the future of our children’s children and our children’s future children’s children, which it is sheer wickedness to waste and destroy.’

‘But we also need guardians of this wealth, to ensure that it reaches those who may not know they are hungry. our civilisation –a civilisation that is now under threat.’

[SueKich · Rating 1 out of 5]

“Who is Sylvia? What is she…?”

[Some spoilers.]

It is 1958 and 25-year old Sylvia arrives in East Mole to take up the post of Children’s Librarian. Keen to share her love of children’s literature with the local youngsters, Sylvia hopes to transform the dowdy, unloved section of the library into a welcoming hub for the children of this parochial village. But as we know, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. And when she meets handsome Dr Hugh Bell – also newly arrived in East Mole and with a snooty wife and precocious daughter in tow – it seems that not all of Sylvia’s intentions are quite so good…

I’m afraid this novel didn’t work for me at all. Throughout the book, twenty-first century considerations and values are shoe-horned into mid-twentieth century rural England. The author seems determined to make several social points, for example, the benefits of a grammar school education versus the iniquity of the 11+ examination. The characters border on caricatures: the nice neighbours, the horrid ones, the snobbish ones, the quirky ones.

And Sylvia herself veers suddenly – and quite unbelievably – from young virginal innocent to the role of ‘the other woman’ and thence to the delivery of a foul-mouthed tirade. No. Such an uncharacteristic swerve jars horribly and wrong-foots the reader to an unacceptable extent. This is not, of course, to say that young women didn’t have illicit affairs in the ‘50s but Sylvia’s use of the ‘f’ bomb is not only out of tune with well brought-up young women of the time but also out of step with her character.

Reading the author notes, it appears that Salley Vickers has worked as a special needs teacher, a university literature lecturer and a psychoanalyst, and it seems to me that she has tried to incorporate all these disciplines into her latest book; I have enjoyed some of this author's previous work but here her intentions are almost palpable. The rendering of Sylvia and Hugh’s affair simply fails to ring true, her insistence on making social points comes across as preachy and the anachronistic feel of this novel results in a bumpy read. Lovely edition, though. Nice work, Viking.

[Inês | Livros e Papel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Opinião aqui: https://livrosepapel.blogspot.com/202...

[Dale Harcombe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sylvia Blackwell, takes up a position as Children’s librarian in the market town of East Mole. The time is in 1958. The struggling library’s collection of books is in severe need of updating. Sylvia has visions of encouraging more library use and reading from the children of the town. Not everyone is happy with some of her ideas to encourage children into the library. Sylvia makes friends and manages to take under her wing a couple of the children and encourage them. One of these is Sam the boy next door. Another is Lizzie. Sylvia finds love and makes enemies. Trouble erupts and some of the children Sylvia befriends as well as some of her own actions put her in the middle of it.
The sense of time and place are well executed, however the characters didn’t engage me as much as they ought to have done. Some are decidedly unlikable. Dr Hugh Grant was a pompous prat and I struggled to find what Sylvia loved about him.
I initially picked this book up because I assumed it be to be about books and I love books about books. I did like the list at the end of books mentioned throughout the novel, although in many ways I though the book focused too much on the love affair and personal relationships rather than the power of books and reading, which I assumed was the intention. I was also keen to read it since it was written by Sally Vickers and years ago I had read and loved Mrs Gannet’s angel and a couple of her others which I enjoyed. Not sure whether my reading taste has changed or the author’s style but although this book was entertaining, it never completely grabbed me. Some aspects of the story just seemed unnecessary inclusions. I was left a little disappointed. However this is just my reaction to this book and others may well love it.

[Mandy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could hardly believe I was reading a book by Salley Vickers, an author whose novels I have always enjoyed, and who seems to me to write interestingly and with a sure hand. This novel, however, I found almost unreadable. Anachronistic language and attitudes, stilted conversation, stock characters, plus some didacticism added to the mix when Vickers feels impelled to interject her views on such matters as the importance of libraries or the 11+ and grammar schools. The plot concerns a young woman, Sylvia Blackwell, who in 1958 moves to the small town of East Mole to take up a position as Children’s Librarian. We follow her endeavours to get more children interested in the library and the support or opposition she has to face – all very predictable. There’s an unnecessary and far too long epilogue just when I was feeling relieved to be nearly at the end. All told this is simply not up to Vickers’ normal standard by any means and I was irritated both by the lazy writing and uninteresting storyline.

[Fiona MacDonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

A charming story fom Salley Vickers.
Sylvia is brought in to East Mole to begin work as Children's Librarian for the small library in the late 1950s. For some time she adores her job, (despite a rather unpleasant manager who is having an affair with her work colleague), and finds great joy in recommending books to the children who come through the door. She becomes great friends with the children of her neighbours, who clearly absolutely adore her, and then falls head over heels in love with the local doctor, whose daughter Marigold also attends the library.
However, a wind of change is blowing towards East Mole, and when a Henry Miller book is stolen from the restricted access section of the library, Sylvia is blamed, and life will never be the same again.
I found myself thinking during my work day about how much I wanted to get back to East Mole and share in Sylvia's life with her, and to me that is a mark of a great book. I found Sylvia to be a very endearing character who I think I would've been great friends with.
I loved that the main character is named after Sylvia Townsend Warner, and that we are given our own East Mole reading list at the end of the book. Very poignant. I am really enjoying books recently that give details of past times and customs.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read the first 48 pages out of 385. The vintage cover design is adorable, and probably drew me in against my better judgment. An idealistic young woman takes up the post of Children’s Librarian in a small town populated by good-hearted busybodies and urchins. On the twee side of pleasant. Promises to be a predictable love story. An excuse for the author to list off her favorite books from childhood? (Read Lucy Mangan’s Bookworm instead!) There’s the odd jarring line that doesn’t at all match the tone of the rest, e.g. dogs “masturbating frenziedly against Sylvia’s shins.” I’m not sure I’d try anything else by Vickers without a firm recommendation from a trusted reading friend.

[Jonathan Pool · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not my cup of tea at all.
I read The Librarian because it was chosen by my local Waterstones book club. Waterstones UK chose it as their November book of the month and consequently it had achieved decent sales, and a wide readership.
Damning with faint praise
My local group were divided on the books merits and there were some who enjoyed it. Trying to be charitable I respect and appreciate the reading of any book, as distinct from none at all.

There are numerous things I didn’t like about Salley Vickers’s writing (and from what I read, and heard, even her great advocates don’t regard The Librarian as her finest moment), but setting aside the specifics of this book, I think, on reflection, that my antipathy extends to reading books in general where a child, or children are central to the story. That is the case with The Librarian where Sam, (“he’s an unusual child with an unsually well-developed political sense”(299))!!!!! Lizzie, Marigold and others attending the children’s section of a library take centre stage.
I’m not anti-children (I am a parent), and I respect enormously the children’s books written for, and read by, children.

Referred to in The Librarian are Swallows & Amazons, Narnia, Biggles and Tom's Midnight Garden.
This last book was one that Salley Vickers has acknowledged as a personal inspiration and it is clearly of great and enduring quality. I think Vickers missed an opportunity to weave some of Toms Midnight Garden into her own book.
Reflecting on my reservations about precocious children as the stars of fictional literature the only exception that I can come up with as an adult reader is David Mitchell’s Black Swan Green; this though was written more as enhanced autobiography rather than the fictionalised characterisation of children.
So far as the book was concerned, in no particular order I had reservations about
* “Part 2”. A short bolt on set in contemporary times looking back to 1958. Tying up of loose ends and too obvious. It was a small degree of uncertainty about events in 1958 that gave the book a bit of mystique- and this was wiped out.

* Sylvia Blackwell & Hugh Bell. Their love affair that gives Mills & Boon a run for its money. Sylvia’s feelings for her would be paramour:”Sylvia felt something happening to her bones” (98)

* Hugh Bell is a particularly irritating character. His ruminations on life are particularly lacking insight
”a lot of growing up is about becoming fragmented... with different parts of yourself not terribly in sync”

Not a book I would recommend.

[Clair Atkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

24 year old Sylvia Blackwell arrives in the village of East Mole in 1958 in order to start work in their run down library as the children's librarian. She rents a cottage in the village and she is passionate about getting the children of East Mole reading.
Sylvia befriends several of the children including Sam, a bright son of one of her neighbours; Lizzie, the grandchild of her landlady whom Sylvia is tasked with getting through the 11+ exams and Marigold, the precocious child of the local GP. She soon knocks the library into shape and gets in touch with the WI and the local school in the hope of getting children into the library, much to the horror of the main librarian who isn't the most welcoming!
Oh my goodness, I adored this book so much! This is the perfect book for anyone who loves books. Despite it being written in 2018, the prose feels very much of it's period. Some of the discussions between Sylvia and her boss made me roll my eyes and some of the books deemed suitable for children including Dickens, Shakespeare and a book titled "The Joy of Obedience" are funny. Luckily Sylvia has a good budget for new books and is able to fill the shelves with lots of wonderful books, which are detailed in a list at the back of the book.
I loved reading this little snapshot of what small town England was like in the late 1950s...the nostalgia, the prejudices people had but also the simpler times and the freedom kids had. Just wonderful - I didn't want it to end!

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 4 out of 5]

"People can lose their lives in libraries. They ought to be warned."
---Saul Bellow



I went to Paris, and I visited the Red Wheelbarrow Bookstore there. I met Penelope, the shop owner, and had a lovely chat with her.

"I'm a retired children's librarian," I told her.

"I have just the book for you," she said, and she brought me The Librarian by Salley Vickers.

Of course I had to buy it, and read it, and I tell you now that it was a perfect recommendation.

The Librarian is the story of Sylvia Blackwell who arrives in East Mole in 1958 to become the children's librarian of a run-down library. Sylvia is enthusiastic about reading, and, despite wall after wall thrown up to thwart her---a small-minded boss, town gossip, and more---Sylvia gradually begins to make a difference in the town, book-talking her favorite stories with others, teaming up with school teachers to bring children to the library, helping children find the books they love to read.

The Librarian is a story for all librarians who want to share their love of books with others, who know the power of books to change lives.

One of my favorite parts is where Sylvia talks about why she loves to read children's books.

"I still read children's books, mostly. I, I suppose I just prefer them."

"Why? I mean, why do you prefer them?"

Never having articulated this to anyone, Sylvia looked down at the book she'd been reading. It was a strange book, one Mrs. Jenkins had introduced her to, but it was a strangeness that had spoken to something deep inside her and it had become an old friend.

"Maybe," she said hesitantly, "maybe it's because children's authors can write about magic, other worlds, and be taken seriously. I mean, suggest that somewhere, even if it's hidden, there's another reality as real as the everyday world we take for granted that enlarges our sense of ordinary reality, gives it more meaning, if you see what I mean."

I do. Thank you, Sylvia of The Librarian. Thank you, Penelope of The Red Wheelbarrow.

[Hadas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific book! Well written and heartwarming.

[Jano · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reseña completa: http://elcaosliterario.blogspot.com/2...

Esta novela es perfecta para cualquier amante de los libros. Un homenaje al mundo de la lectura que analiza las relaciones humanidad y recuerda cómo los libros pueden mejorar nuestras vidas.

La protagonista está muy bien dibujada aunque los personajes secundarios no tanto. La trama, fácil de seguir, se enfoca en la historia de amor y las relaciones personales de ellos y es sencilla de leer.

Como aspecto negativo de esta historia puedo destacar alguna subtrama que bajo mi punto de vista no queda resuelta del todo. No voy a concretar mucho más para no avanzar nada de la historia que no se sepa por la sinopsis.

Por encima de todo ha sido una historia mucho más enriquecedora de lo que pensaba, con variedad de temas y bastante profunda.

En resumen: una novela imprescindible para cualquier amante de los libros que profundiza en la influencia de la lectura en nuestras vidas independientemente del tiempo o el lugar. Amor y relaciones personales se unen en esta historia que no es perfecta, pero sí muy especial.

[Nikki · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF BOOK! Whilst I was obviously interested in a book called ‘The Librarian’ as I am a librarian myself, & have read other books by Salley Vickers, I just thought this book was too twee!

It didn’t capture what librarians are really like, what it’s like working in a public library, or what it’s like working with outside partners, such as doctors & primary schools which are highlighted in the book. I think if you love books & libraries & are not a librarian, you will probably enjoy the book, but for me it is was dull & poorly written.

[Sara.Lectora · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5
Aunque la acción transcurre a finales de los 50 parece que puedas situarte un siglo antes porque la vida apacible del campo, los cotilleos, las apariencias, esa moralidad excesiva de algunos personajes, bien podría pasar a principios de siglo.
Una joven biliotecaria con ganas de impulsar su biblioteca infantil y lo va consiguiendo, lo que provoca envidias en algunos, recelos, cuyas consecuencias son llevadas al extremo.
Enredos, malos entendidos y unas últimas 50 páginas extraordinarias, para mí, de lo mejor del libro.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

For my full review, visit me at https://mrsbrownsbooks.wordpress.com/...

Despite this being my third read by Vickers; despite seeing this released last year and having high expectations, I have been greatly disappointed in my experience of a book that I thought would appeal to my bookish character.

For my full review, visit me at https://mrsbrownsbooks.wordpress.com/...

[Mer · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 ⭐
Confieso que sin llegar a encantarme como esperaba tratándose de una novela donde los libros tienen tanto protagonismo, “La bibliotecaria” ha sido una lectura que me ha gustado bastante, sobre todo por Sylvia, su protagonista, una entrañable bibliotecaria encargada en 1958 de la sección infantil de una biblioteca de un pequeño pueblo del centro de Inglaterra, donde intentará transmitir a los niños del lugar su amor por los libros. Aunque será bien recibida por algunos vecinos, con otras personas no tendrá tanta afinidad y poco a poco iremos viendo cómo encaja (o no) entre los lugareños.

Me ha gustado mucho el desarrollo del personaje de Sylvia, su amor por los libros, sus ideas para la biblioteca infantil y su opinión por la literatura en general que choca con las mentes cerradas y demasiado tradicionales de algunos lugareños que no le pondrán las cosas fáciles. El final me ha parecido sumamente bonito, ya que viene a demostrar lo importante que puede llegar a ser descubrir la lectura cuando uno es un niño. Nunca es tarde para descubrir los libros pero, es tan bonito hacerlo de niños y saber que ya nunca más estarás solo, aunque no tengas a nadie a tu alrededor…

En fin, “La bibliotecaria” es una lectura sumamente agradable de leer y de escuchar, es un bonito homenaje a las bibliotecas y bibliotecarios y creo que resultará interesante para todos los amantes de los libros y las bibliotecas.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

1950's rural England - 25-year old woman moves away from her uninspiring parents to take on job of children's librarian; she forms attachment to married doctor with precocious, spoiled daughter; her immediate neighbors have children she bonds with and contributes to their educational development; portraits of these children appear later in the book as adults. That's it in nutshell.
What I liked was the rapport between librarian and the kids of the town.
There was a lot to not like, however. I would have chosen a better path for the librarian. Oh well.
Many good books for children are featured and listed in back of book.

[Anae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bonita y entrañable historia, excelentemente narrada y con muchas lecciones de vida.
Un libro para disfrutar de la lectura.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

From BBC Radio 4 - Book at Bedtime:
Episode 1 of 10
In Salley Vickers' lyrical tribute to the power of children's literature, enthusiastic new librarian Sylvia Blackwell shakes up the tight-knit community of East Mole.

Episode 2 of 10
Sylvia launches her plan to encourage more local children into the library - but not everyone in East Mole shares her enthusiasm.

Episode 3 of 10
Sylvia Blackwell is delighted to find an ally in her mission to encourage the local children into the library. She receives a plea for help from an unexpected source.

Episode 4 of 10
Settling in nicely to East Mole and her job in the children's library, Sylvia finds her interest caught by new GP Dr Bell.

Episode 5 of 10
Sylvia's work with Lizzie pays dividends as her friendship with married GP Dr Bell deepens.

Episode 6 of 10
As winter approaches, the library roof remains unrepaired and a friendship is about to cross a line forever.

Episode 7 of 10
War breaks out between Sylvia and her neighbour Mr Collins - and young Sam is caught in the middle.

Episode 8 of 10
After secretly visiting London with married man Hugh, Sylvia faces a confrontation at the library.

Episode 9 of 10
As the respectable citizens of East Mole turn against Sylvia, a malicious act will cause danger to life and cast doubt on the future of her young friends.

Episode 10 of 10
Sylvia's good work in inspiring the youngsters of East Mole threatens to be overshadowed.

Written and abridged by Salley Vickers
Read by Barbara Flynn
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie

The acclaimed author of 'Miss Garnet's Angel', 'Where Three Roads Meet' and 'Dancing Backwards' casts her clear psychoanalytic gaze on small town, post-war England. Economic uncertainty and a growing dissatisfaction with old class distinctions cause friction as a recent library graduate comes to a new town determined to open the world of literature to all the local children.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b6...

[Marie Saville · Rating 3 out of 5]

Qué pena da cuando un libro empieza gustándote muchísimo y acaba torciéndose por el camino. No es que 'La bibliotecaria' de Salley Vickers no me haya gustado; ha resultado ser una lectura agradable, pero definitivamente, ni pienso releerla en un futuro, ni mucho menos conservarla largo tiempo en la memoria.

Sylvia Blackwell tiene veinticuatro años cuando acepta el puesto de bibliotecaria infantil en el pequeño pueblecito de East Mole. Cargada de ilusiones, la joven no tarda en rodearse de un nutrido grupo de chiquillos a los que pretende inculcar el amor por la lectura.
Pero muy pronto, Sylvia encuentra trabas a sus proyectos y vive experiencias más o menos agradables con distintos vecinos del pueblo; incluyendo al apuesto y bien casado Doctor Bell...

De nuevo la ambientación y las referencias literarias me han salvado la lectura. La primera parte de la novela, con la instalación de la protagonista en su pequeña casita, sus primeros contactos con el resto de habitantes y el entusiasmo que muestra al verse rodeada de naturaleza, después de toda una vida entre el asfalto londinense, me parecieron encantadoras. Además anoté un montón de títulos de libros infantiles que me encantaría leer algún día.
Pero, una vez empiezan a instalarse la trama y los personajes...nada que destacar. No he conseguido interesarme lo más mínimo por ninguno de ellos.
Ni las habladurías y enfrentamientos entre vecinos me resultaron tan graves, ni el comportamiento de Sylvia tan subversivo como prometía la sinopsis; por no hablar de su romance con el Doctor Bell (no os destripo nada, porque es más que previsible desde las primeras páginas): completamente innecesario.

Como siempre esta es una apreciación personal, y quizá vosotros disfrutéis de lo lindo con esta novela que intenta esbozar, bajo la premisa del amor por los libros de la infancia, un retrato de la Inglaterra rural de los años 50.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hugely disappointing.....I’ve read several of this author’s books, and they range from being all time favourites, to being awful......

I thought this one sounded so very promising.....a young, enthusiastic librarian, who is passionate about encouraging children to read....
I was wrong....instead it was one of those frustrating scenarios, where she comes up against all the usual barriers to progress.....awful, selfish, stuck in the mud people, silly rules, etc. and she herself eventually acts so out of character that it becomes hard to take seriously.
There are a few interesting characters, and a few decent scenes, but that doesn’t redeem it.
And the ending.....like I said....so very disappointing.

[Sherrie · Rating 2 out of 5]

That's a generous two stars! Not sure why I continued to read this, it turned out to be a non-story, dull, very twee, unlikable characters and quite absurd in places. I won't be in a hurry to read another of her books.

[SueLucie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A difficult book to review, especially since I came to it with high expectations. The first half is devoted to setting the scene - rural middle England in 1958. The innocent 24-year-old Sylvia arrives to take up a post as Children’s Librarian and settle into small-town life after a city upbringing. The author creates a lovely sense of time and place. Sylvia is entranced by the natural world around her and by some of the people, young and adult, she comes to know during one year. The story reads as (and her afterword would confirm her intention for it to be) a vehicle for the author to catalogue all the children’s books her character Sylvia loved as a child and a celebration of the (sometimes unintended) effect a librarian’s recommendations can have on young minds. Nothing to object to here and I could appreciate her passion for her subject but, goodness, it takes a lot of pages (the entire first half of the book) and becomes a little dull.

I was relieved that the action picks up at the midway point. I began to engage properly with Sylvia and the other characters’ interaction and predicaments, and there are some thoughtful insights into people’s behaviour and relationships. There are plenty of references to mid-20th century social and moral attitudes, some dealt with in the detail of the story but just as often issues are mentioned almost as random asides and not explored further. I found this frustrating as there are hints that several characters have hidden, interesting depths but we learn no more.

Towards the end of the book, though, I was rather pleased with the way it was turning out, not too neat or predictable an ending and scope for the reader to imagine the future for the main characters. Then comes a final section when we jump to the present day. Two of the characters meet up after the intervening decades and chat about what happened to everyone after we left them in 1959. Surely I can’t be alone in disliking this sort of wholesale tying up of loose ends? Its uncharacteristic lack of subtlety left me feeling cheated and undermined the whole experience. I’ve been a fan of Salley Vickers’ writing for many years and have enjoyed most of her novels, but I don’t think I would recommend this one highly.

With thanks to Penguin UK/Viking for the opportunity of an ARC.

[Moray Teale · Rating 2 out of 5]

A rather average tale of small-town, rural life in the 1950s. It’s a pleasant enough read but neither the characters nor the writing offered anything fresh or new, even the centrality of the library couldn’t save it and the repeated references to I Capture the Castle left me wondering if the author was aiming for her own version of this classic but she failed to re-create the humour and charm by rather a wide margin. I honestly can’t pinpoint a single thing about it that could be classed as “subversive”. It may have affairs, banned books and children straining against convention but it doesn’t do anything original with them.

Several of the themes were a little tired, the class struggles, small-town gossip and obstructive locals and heaven save me from post-war plots where young, mousy ingénues are silly enough to get involved with married men and their sob stories. I quite liked teenagers Sam and Lizzie and the exuberant twins but even they were only just enough to hold my interest until the end. The one person who struck me as really interesting was Flee Crake but she had far too little time on the page and rather than exploring this interesting character she was relegated to a convenient plot device to solve a problem and did little else. Several of the peripheral characters alluding to pasts and stories that seemed frankly more interesting than the main vein with its tedious quasi-romance and convoluted dramas about the library and the secondary-school fate of the younger characters. I would have liked to see more of Gwen and Chris.

The sudden shift in the last part was a terrible error of judgement. Skipping fifty years into the future the writing is irritatingly coy about revealing who the returning character is, an odd decision because I couldn’t bring myself to care. This epilogue is so brief (and yet too long) that it seems obvious that Sally Vickers wasn’t sure what to do with it but felt compelled to tie up all the loose ends and tell us exactly what happened to all the characters we left in 1959. It’s painfully basic storytelling and a reason why this kind of flash-forward epilogue is never a good idea.

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best! This is a thoroughly charming read. Just loved the 1950’s English village setting and love of books, reading and the local library.