All my posts this season are “inspired by” a letter of the alphabet!

I’m lucky enough to have always been surrounded by books. From an early age, it was like we had a library at home. Then when I was around 9 years old, I won a competition with the local newspaper and the prize was a day “backstage” at the local library. I think it was the only reason I entered the competition. I spent the day in this cathedral of books (the old library in Jersey), discovering how it worked and even stamping out some books for the public.

In the summers, we’d go to get out a stack for summer reading. In a family with 4 children, my parents couldn’t be buying books left, right and centre and we were all avid readers. When the mobile library, a kind of caravan full of books that drove around and stopped in various residential areas, came around, the anticipation was huge. Which books would be available? And on my doorstep!

I also remember my Mum getting out books from the library, particuarly when she was reading a saga. Poldark comes to mind, and when she was itching for the next book, she would happily take out the version in large print for people with impaired vision, in order not to wait for the temporarily unavailable copies. It meant she was turning the pages more frequently, and the book weighed considerably more than the versions she was used to, but she was happy to be able to read. And though she was not hard of sight, as it were, how many people are, and have, through a library, the opportunity to read in more comfort?

Over the years I have also enjoyed seeing disused phone boxes converted into makeshift libraries, for people to take a book and replace with another, or cafés with second-hand books to browse. These are a great service to the community.

I suppose these experiences in libraries shaped me in the sense that I am never without a book. They are friends. I write short stories, as I have always done, and continue to explore different genres and authors. Libraries gave me the opportunity to enter a magical world, to discover new ideas, to develop my imagination. And nowadays, I write, I teach, I question. I’m fascinated by language and linguistics and none of that would have been possible without access to books.

Without a doubt, libraries are, or should be, a public service so that books are available to all. And libraries are more than that. They are havens. Not only places for books, but also cultural events, workshops, access to historical archives. They are places of discovery. They are a reflection of our socio-cultural and historical heritage. And maybe most importantly, they are places of shared experiences, so necessary in our society.

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L is For…