Garswood Library
If I could be brave enough to remember the first time I went into my local library at the torrid age of 18.
If I could be brave enough to remember what the librarian said to me, as the jaws of a shark stamped those books with a thud.
At first, I held them scared to death, as they contained words and were unnecessarily heavy.
And then as if secretly, I finished a thing called a book.
But did she see that worried look in my eyes and did she look at me with Northern grit and say “with these things you’ll get by.”
Epitaph : The library closed its doors for last time on the 26th of January 2024 due to Austerity.
Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh
Wed 4th Sep 2024 08:15
Thanks David. I'm intrigued by your refernce to "the jaws of a shark"?
The war on literacy continues... (Orwell's Prevention of Literature?) austerity but only for the less affluent and attacks on the humanities in higher education have been going on for many years.
I became an avid reader of both fact and fiction with the help of my local library which was on my walked route to and from school, of course, such a facility was a product of a socialist mindset, and is thus now an abhorrence.
And I remember with affection our teacher reading Black Beauty out to us towards the end of class.