Some Christmas cheer from the library trustees!
We’re pleased to share this light-hearted look at Christmas and our library 100 years ago from the trustees.
We’re pleased to share this light-hearted look at Christmas and our library 100 years ago from the trustees.
David Cornwell, better known by his pen name John le Carré, was a passionate supporter and friend of Morrab Library for many years. As well as holding the role of President from 1997-2002, he later continued for many years as our Patron. His relationship with the Library stretched even further back to the 1970’s.
Mr Cornwell supported the library in a number of ways. Perhaps the most special was his establishment of the Morrab Fellowship, which for a number of years provided a bursary to local sixth-formers to purchase books for their studies. He will be remembered for his vision for the library’s future, and his aim of encouraging young people to join and be inspired by this special place.
His tremendous generosity was evident through his commissioning of the construction of a number of the beautiful Victorian-style mahogany reading tables located in our rooms upstairs, and paying the insurance premium on our book collection throughout his tenure as President. Mr Cornwell also donated copies of all of his books to the library throughout the years.
He also gave his time to many events and meetings to support the library. One very successful fundraiser was a televised event from the Acorn Theatre in 2000, when he was interviewed about his life and writings by Radio Cornwall’s Tim Hubbard in front of a packed audience. Another was an evening in the library, when Radio 4’s James Naughtie interviewed Mr Cornwell for his popular Bookclub show in 1998. The interview was aired the following year and you can listen to it here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00fptty
Morrab Library was incredibly fortunate to have Mr Cornwell as a friend, supporter, life member, President and Patron. He wrote of the Morrab Library….”whether you’re an impassioned bibliophile or just someone who loves a good read, the Morrab is for you: a Cornish treasure house, a meeting place for like-minded souls, and a vibrant forum for contemporary writing.” His legacy will endure.
Lisa Di Tommaso
In this blog piece, library volunteer and member, David Sleeman, speaks about the latest addition to our children’s collection – Holy Macaroni! written by the brilliant and much missed Maureen Sleeman.
Holy Macaroni! by Maureen Sleeman
A wonderful new addition to the shelves of the Morrab Library will shortly be arriving. Holy Macaroni a children’s story written by Maureen Sleeman who was a member of the library for many years will be published early in November by AH Stockwell.
Macaroni, an Italian mongrel lives with the Fettuccini family in a pizzeria near the ancient town of Pompeii. Macaroni finds himself carried back 2000 years to the reign of Caligula. Plunged into a madcap world of slaves, gladiators and a lunatic emperor Macaroni becomes a dog with a cause, sniffing out treachery, pitting his wits against villains and saving Pompeii from the Emperors wrath.
Children in the family have read Macaroni and Maureen took him to a local primary school and read to the children who loved it. The inspiration came from her love of Italy and a holiday where we visited Pompeii.
It was against this background that I chose to try and get Macaroni published.
Sadly, Maureen passed away in April 2019 aged 58 and Macaroni just lay there asking to be let out. He has travelled to London, twice to Wales, before finally finding a friendly publisher in North Devon.
Maureen loved to write and was known locally in various writing groups. It seemed as if Maureen always had a pen in her hand making notes about characters and places for the next story. Over time, she has produced many articles and novels, one with a film script which got as far as Working Title in London but alas not taken up. Her last novel set in Rhodes, crime fiction was all but complete prior to her illness. Maureen had planned to go back to her writing in January 2020 and work on getting her writing published but it was not to be.
My tribute to Maureen was to get Macaroni published and let children enjoy the benefit of her wonderful imagination.
David Sleeman
Morrab Library is open again, although in a very limited capacity. The necessity to keep staff, volunteers and members as safe as possible is our first priority, and we will need to continue to work within the context of health and safety legislation and best practice guidelines for libraries to achieve this.
Please note we will close for the Christmas period from 4.00pm Saturday 19th December until 10.00am on Wednesday 6th January.
It needs to be said that while the staff will do all it can to make the library as safe as possible, we cannot of course guarantee it 100%, so each member will need to make their own decision about whether they feel they can visit.
Opening hours and access
While you are with us
Loans and Returns
Amenities
Cleaning
Please contact the Library (enquiries@morrablibrary.org.uk), or leave a message on 01736 364474 and we’ll call you back, if you have any questions or concerns.
We would also like to offer my assistance to any of you who will need to continue to self-isolate and won’t be able to visit, or do not have anyone who can borrow books on your behalf. Please get in touch so we can find a way to help you if we can.
I know this remains a less than ideal situation, but hopefully it won’t be too much longer before we can return to the normality of the Morrab Library we all love so much. Thank you so much for your wonderful support throughout lockdown, and as we move forward into the new year.
Lisa Di Tommaso
Librarian
It is with great sadness that we need to let you know for a second time that due to restrictions initiated by government authorities, the library will close today at 4.00pm (Wednesday 4th November) until we are given permission to reopen, hopefully in early December. We apologise for the short notice, the government regulations were only fully announced last night.
We’re aware it leaves virtually no time for you to visit to stock up on library books for the lockdown period, and for this we can only apologise.
If you have any library books out on loan, please don’t worry about returning them. As you know, we do not impose fines for overdue books, and rather than try to return them to the library when we’re not here (they won’t fit in our letterbox!), we would rather you held on to them and kept them safe until we are open again.
In the meantime and as before, staff will be working from home, and we can be contacted via email and social media. Unfortunately, we cannot forward the library phone number to another number, but we will check for voicemail messages every few days. So please stay in touch, and if we are able to help in any way, we will be very happy to do so.
We have some practice at this now, and we hope you get through this period safely and with minimal inconvenience and anxiety. We shall of course continue to send you our weekly links to help keep you occupied in the next few weeks.
We will miss you, and hope to see you again very soon. Please stay safe and take care.
Lisa, India, Sue, Tuna and the Trustees