As an 83 year old woman, I write of my childhood and young womanhood. BOOKS were central to my family life. It was the era when ‘getting educated’…going to University…rising up the social scale…My Father adored Foyles book shop, Charing Cross Road. Here he bought SETS… all 32 volumes of Balzac, Dequincy, Mary Webb. Beyond the book-shelves which my Dad botched up, there were LIBRARIES! Those quiet places filled with great literature. Knowledgeable LIBRARIANS who could answer all your enquiries. And after accident, Arthur survived months of pain and poverty by my Mum’s VISITS TO THE LIBRARY; couldn’t WAIT, to see what she’d got in her basket.
It grieves me beyond measure that these HAVENS of culture, inspiration, eye-openers to the world and SOLACE and QUIET are under serious attack. Buying cheap from Amazon or Waterstones .. watching TV and DVDs is absolutely NO SUBSTITUTE for the libraries, so PROUDLY established in the last 100 years .
To think so, reveals BARBARISM LET LOOSE by our elected local ‘leaders’.