From the moment I could read, I quickly discovered my local library and from that day to this, I’ve been a fan of the place.
Whenever I’m in a different town or county, I love to visit a library just to see what’s on offer and who’s reading what. Librarians, like teachers, are some of the most underrated members of society.
They provide such an important service but I always feel they are overlooked, given how much joy and enlightenment they bring to our world.
Whenever I’m there, the staff are invariably friendly, helpful and extremely well-read so that if you’re stuck for a recommendation or have a general query, they’ll put you on the right road.
Of course, libraries have changed since I was a youngster in the 1980s.
The computers are top of the range, every newspaper and magazine you could want is there for you and (although nearly obsolete) most libraries have an extensive DVD collection to keep you entertained if you want a break from the book.
What’s exceptional too is that it’s all completely free. You can read every single book in the place and you won’t have to spend a euro.
Last week, here in London, I joined my local library for all the reasons just mentioned, but also because it’s one of the last social hubs left in most towns and cities.
The local newsagent, grocery shop and post office are either gone or replaced, but the trusty library has largely survived the social culling that presents itself as progress in most places.
I used the computer printed off a few articles and got myself a library card which sits proudly in my wallet.
London being London, there is of course a very grand, old-fashioned and dusty old building in the corner of St James’s Square.
The London Library was founded in 1841 and it feels like not much has changed since they laid the first stone, and that’s exactly the way I like it, and I chose to join up for a year just to see what it’s like.
Walking into the building, you can almost hear the horse and carriage pulling up outside to leave Arthur Conan Doyle off so that he could sit in one of the reading rooms to write another adventure for his most famous character, Sherlock Holmes.
In fact Conan Doyle was a member of the library alongside such literary luminaries as Charles Dickens, Daphne du Maurier, Stanley Kubrick and Dubliner Bram Stoker.
The bookshelves go on for miles in strange, antiquated labyrinthine corridors that left me dizzy after only a brief wander.
The desks, chairs and decor are utterly otherworldly with only a few clues that this might be the 21st and not the 19th century, and for those reasons, I absolutely love it.
I’ve had an idea in my head for a children’s book in the last year or two and as I sat there in a comfy leather chair, looking out at the beautiful buildings and the quaint St James’s Square itself, I wrote the outline to a story I’m excited about developing, inspired by the ghosts of patrons past.
I’ve mentioned the great Mark Wogan here before. His dad Terry was of course a broadcasting titan and icon.
Now Mark is moving and shaking in the food world as well as his podcast, Spooning with Mark Wogan.
I was passing by another great Irishman’s restaurant in Mayfair during the week when a ‘small world’ situation occurred.
I stumbled across Richard Corrigan’s highly esteemed Bentley’s Oyster Bar & Grill and thought I’d pop my head in to say hello.
As it turned out, he had stepped out (no, really!) and as I walked away (bound for the London Library as it happens) my phone buzzed.
It was Mark Wogan saying I’d been spotted at the door, he was inside and I should double back for a coffee, which I duly did.
When I got there he introduced me to Jess and we got chatting about my weakest subject (well,one of a few), namely food. Jess was asking how London was going, and I mentioned there’s a delicatessen-type place near me called Panzer’s, to which she replied, ‘Oh, they’re one of mine’, by which she meant that her PR firm represents that chain (among many others).
But when she said ‘Ah, but it’s no SuperValu’, my eyes lit up and I asked how she knew about my local shop in Dublin.
As it turned out, I was talking to Jess Corrigan, daughter of Richard but also co-owner of Crab Communications (‘sideways thinkers’ as their blurb says, very good) and her extremely successful business is at the centre of all things foodie in London – not an easy thing to achieve.
We all had a great chat, I finished my coffee and headed for the bookshelves, very pleased to have met another member of London’s Next Generation.
