Holy Macaroni! by Maureen Sleeman

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

New Additions

These are just a handful of the new titles that have arrived in the library this month – if they aren’t out on loan already you can find them on our new additions shelves!

New Books for Autumn/Winter 2019

Pictured here are the covers of just some of the wonderful (& typically eclectic) new additions that have arrived in the library over the last few months… 

Most of these can be found on the new additions shelves by the library desk – if they haven’t been snapped up and taken out by members already! Do let us know if you would like anything reserved. You can find a full list of new titles (in no particular order I’m afraid!) here. 

New Additions for Spring/Summer

These are images of just some of the titles that have arrived in the library over the last few months – many of which (if they haven’t already been taken out!) can be found on our new additions shelves in the library reception. For a complete list of our recent acquisitions click here.

We purchase books for our collections a few times a year – many of these are suggested by our members using our suggestion book (found behind the desk). We would like to encourage these contributions on what you’d like to see in your library. We’ll be purchasing some more titles at the end of August so any suggestions before then would be greatly appreciated!