by admin | Feb 21, 2018 | Morrab Library
Dear All,
A while ago someone asked me who was going to ‘replace’ Annabelle; the honest answer was that no one could ‘replace’ Annabelle… the library is Annabelle’s library, one she has created over the last thirty years.
Nevertheless the Committee grasped the nettle with, it must be said, some apprehension. With the help of Sue James, HR Consultant, and Doreen Pinfold, University of Exeter, we advertised in the CILIP magazine, locally, in-house and on the internet.
The result was a stream of applicants; one from Qatar, one from Japan… another from Canada.. .
The Committee and the staff spent a long day carrying out a meet-and greet event for eleven short-listed applicants, and then, a few days later, a smaller group interviewed four finalists.
It is a tribute to our library that all of the applicants were very strong contenders; certainly it was no easy job to find the ‘best’.
Eventually however we did come to a decision that our new Senior Librarian would be Lisa di Tomasso; currently Head of Collections at Durham Cathedral Library, Lisa has worked with the Natural History Museum in London, the National Trust.
With a lifetime devoted to the written word and an author herself, Lisa will represent the library in the best possible way and take it into the future with enthusiasm and a deep understanding of book collections and conservation.
For the tech’ minded Lisa can be easily ‘Googled’; she can also be seen on Youtube as she appeared on the BBC’s Countryfile programme.
Stepping into Annabelle’s shoes will not be easy for Lisa but I am sure we will one and all give her the warmest Cornish welcome.
Mark Penrose
Chair
by admin | Jan 24, 2017 | Acquisitions, Morrab Library
Grand Hotel Abyss by Stuart Jeffries (new addition)
This is a splendid read : the history of the Frankfurt School presented as a series of biographies of the leaders (particularly Theodor Adorno) since it came into being in 1922 in response to the failed German revolution. These Jewish/Marxist thinkers were the presiding spirits behind Weimar, attempting to transform the lives of workers through “critical thinking”, without violence, but through modernist culture as exemplified by jazz ,cinema, multiculturalism and the art that Hitler was soon to describe as “entartete” ie. degenerate.
Inevitably they had to flee, most of them to The States, but a new generation exists in Germany at the present day,having involved themselves in the student riots of 1968 though the book does not take us into the current rise of European nationalism. Their goals remain: how to respond to consumerist capitalism and its destructive power over humanity.
This book is pleasure to read- certainly filling in gaps of my knowledge of Germany beyond the horrors of Naziism and Ausschwitz and where it may have to use philosophical jargon, explaining it to the reader without treating her as a half-wit.
Pamela Priske
by admin | Oct 21, 2016 | Acquisitions, Morrab Library
We’re excited about this recent addition to our shelves, gifted by our fantastic library president -a signed copy of his latest work.
From one of our leading novelists and historians comes a breathtakingly vivid novel that recalls the three voyages Captain Cook made to the southern hemisphere, culminating in the last, fateful expedition on which he was brutally murdered.
Click here to read an interview with A.N Wilson about the book and the chance discovery which spurred his research and sparked it’s creation.
“Wilson is a great biographer and a fine novelist, and his book is as much a factual account of Forster’s life as a piece of historical fiction. He acknowledges that readers of Forster’s Voyage “will know that I have not invented very much in this novel”. Yet this is one of those astonishing lives that requires little in the way of embellishment. Wilson’s achievement is to impart a restrained imaginative power that makes its extremes seem credible.” –Alfred Hickling, The Guardian
The book is available to borrow now &if any members who read the book would like to contribute their thoughts or comments please do message us at enquiries@morrablibrary.org.uk as we would love to share them here on our blog.
by admin | Jul 21, 2016 | Morrab Library
Our most recent display, created by brilliant volunteer Sheila Bradley, is inspired by Russia and consists of books from the library collection -all of which are available to loan. Here are just some of the titles on display, reviews about them, and a couple of photographs taken in the library.
You can find the display in the glass cabinet in the main reception room. We create a new display with a different topic every month or so -it’s always worth a look in case something that was hidden when it was on the shelves catches your eye.
Click on title for full reviews – Odessa, Letters to Véra, Russia: A Journey to the Heart of a Land and its People, The Penguin Book of Russian Poetry
by admin | Feb 5, 2016 | Acquisitions, Morrab Library
A short review by Pamela Priske, Morrab Library and book selection committee member-
The Wallcreeper is a novel about bird-watching, adultery, drugs, philosophy, conservation and rivers.
Nell is a fifty year old American writer who lives in Berlin and has a wry sense of humour.
My favourite part of the book is liberating the River Elbe.
by admin | Sep 30, 2015 | Morrab Library
The Morrab Library has been awarded £9334 by the National Lottery ‘Awards for All’ fund.
This sum will buy new lights and heaters throughout, enable the re-decoration of the stairwell and principal rooms, buy new stacking chairs, buy new books and shelves, provide a new lap-top computer for Annabelle, help us to provide disabled ramps and a handrail on the from steps, refurbish the kitchen and much more!!
Do you have any ideas how the Library, your Library, can be improved? Please let us know!
See the good news in the recent Cornishman article
