by admin | Aug 4, 2011 | Uncategorized
Penzance Literary Festival took place in the town last week and the library hosted a number of talks and workshops as well as offering Library tours throughout the week.
Dawn (who conducts our regular Friday afternoon library tours) did a fantastic job and took lots of people around the library, explaining our history and origins, and showing some unique items from the special collections and archive. We would also like to thank Ros in particular who was an amazing host, offering visitors tea, coffee and biscuits and doing a mountain of washing up – the best front of house we could ask for.
The talks and workshops were all well attended and enjoyed- the reading room was packed out for three lectures/workshops a day and all the guest speakers were well received. So, well done to Peter Levin and his team who co-ordinated and ensured everything ran smoothly – the festival was even bigger and better than last year and we look forward to PZ lit-fest 2012!
by admin | Aug 3, 2011 | Uncategorized
The Book Selection Committee (Annabelle, Sheila, Jenny, George and Eric) met last week: Choosing from members’ suggestions and their own reasearch they’ve ordered thirty-six new titles for the library. The new books have begun to arrive, and its been a treat to open the boxes (lovely-new-book-smell) and start cataloguing. List of all the new titles below:
The Naive & Sentimental Novelists (Orham Pamuk), The Arsenic Century (James C. Whorton), Held By The Sea (Jane Darke), Cables From Kabul (Cowper Coles), The Levelling Sea (Philip Marsden), The Russian Court at Sea (Frances Welch), Working The Room (Geoff Dyer), Venetian Navigations (Andrea di Robilant), Adonis to Zorro (Delahunty & Dignen), In Search of a Masterpiece (Christopher Lloyd), The House in France (Gully Wells), The Butterfly Isles (Patrick Barkham), The Smell of Summer Grass (Adam Nicholson), Kiki de Montparnasse (Jose-Luis Bocquet), The Sugar Barrons (Matthew Parker), The Bauhaus Group (Nicholas Fox-Weber)
FICTION
The Troubled Man (Henning Mankell), A Death In Summer (Benjamin Black), Jamrach’s Menagerie (Carol Birch), Sex and Stravinsky (Barbara Trapido), Underground Time (Delphine de Vigan), The Last Gift (Abdulrazak Gurnah), A Visit From the Goon Squad (Jennifer Egan), Manna From Hades (Carola Dunn), Warhorse (Michael Morpurgo), How To Live (Sarah Bakewell), Mr Chartwell (Rebecca Hunt), The Stranger’s Child (Alan Hollinghurst), The Doll (Daphne du Maurier), The Bradshaw Variations (Rachel Cusk), Today (David Miller), On His Majesty’s Service (Allan Mallinson), Invisible River (Helena McEwan), The Girl in The Polka Dot Dress (Beryl Bainbridge), King of The Badgers (Philip Hensher), The Mirabelles (Annie Freud)
by admin | Jul 28, 2011 | Uncategorized
Recently, Margaret Orchard donated a large collection of photographic slides to the library‘s Photographic Archive. The collection belonged to Cyril Orchard, her husband, and he used the slides to illustrate the numerous lectures and talks he gave.
The collection is currently being sorted and catalogued by Glyn and Alan, who volunteer here in the Photographic Archive. And they thought it a good idea to let people see the collection, in the hope that we might get some more information about the pictures’ subjects and scenes. So, we’re going to post one image a month for you to see, and hope that you might comment if you have any more information. Also, should you wish to buy a copy of the photograph, prints can be purchased from the library – visit the website for details on prices. Thanks!
SL PEOP 0018
Mr Bond Clark, pictured at his shop at the bottom of Adelaide street, Penzance. C1988. He owned an emporium selling engineering tools, hardware, general tools, car accessories etc. Where the shop’s back entrance was, on Bread Street, he had a garage, and he used to drive his Jaguar in there in the mornings before opening. Everything he had was immaculate; he kept his car in pristine condition and the shop window was always spotless and full of lovely shiny spanners and other tools. We don’t know when the shop opened or when it closed, so any information anyone can give about Mr Bond Clark’s would be greatly appreciated.
by admin | Jul 13, 2011 | Uncategorized
Jessica Mann has generously donated a whopping 50 brand-spanking-new crime books to the library. We catalogued them all yesterday and they’re ready to go out – be the first! Thank you Jessica.
by admin | Jun 23, 2011 | Uncategorized
Morrab Library + Gardens Annual Summer Fete:
After waiting out the brief showers in the morning, the sun came out and so did lots of visitors – the gardens looked super: green + busy.
A delighted Mary Ellery (chairwoman) popped in this morning to say that the Friends of Morrab Gardens raised over £1700! The library also did fantastically well, raising a massive £2768 – a whopping £721 improvement on last year:
Seventeen savvy new members took advantage of our half price offer and the plant and bric-a-brac stalls added their £250 to the pot. The raffle was popular and Mayor Jan drew Cedric Appleby’s (pictured in apron!) ticket for first prize with plenty of others following suit winning artwork, ceramics, tickets to the Eden Project and other prizes. The Tombola stall had only a lonely can of lager left on it by 2pm and raised £83.00 and the cake stall was pretty much sold out by then too. Tuesday saw the big clear up: bunting + banners away, tables stacked up, plenty of hoovering and its business as usual again at the library.
It was a fantastic day, so thank you to all who came along and supported the library and the gardens and a huge thank you to everyone who volunteered, washed up, brought coffee to stallholders, baked cakes, manned stalls and generally made the day run smoothly.
(photos – Glyn Richards) AH
