Meet a member

MEET A MEMBER

Emerging novelist A J West found truth is stranger than fiction when he first walked the Stacks

My debut novel was inspired by a true story, which I read while working as a TV newsreader and reporter in Belfast. A Magician Among The Spirits is Harry Houdini’s account of his exploits debunking spiritual mediums. Of course, I had no idea then that the book would change my life.

I went on to publish the gothic historical novel, The Spirit Engineer, in autumn 2021. It’s about William Jackson Crawford, one of the foremost scientific investigators of spiritual mediums of his day, who took his own life in 1920, most likely having suffered a mental breakdown after a discovery about the young medium, Kathleen Goligher.

After The Spirit Engineer gained some success, I was instructed by my agent to write a second book at doublequick pace. My husband and I live in a small studio flat and, after two years of lockdowns, I knew I couldn’t spend another minute staring out of the same window. That’s when I discovered the Library and, thanks to the support of a dear friend, managed to sign up as a member.

Since then, this building has allowed me to research and write at a pace I didn’t think possible, and people-watch at the same time. A few Library members have even inspired characters in my new book; all complimentary, of course.

There was one particularly strange occurrence on my very first visit, when I found myself lost, as all new members should, high in the towers, searching for nothing in particular and wondering if I might find some of the books I had used to research Crawford.

It was a particularly gloomy day, the light through the windows barely reached the shelves, which were so tightly pressed together I quickly became disorientated. Turning at the top of some stairs on the sixth floor, I stumbled and found myself staring directly at three small, black books, side by side. There on their spines, in golden lettering, was the name: W J Crawford. I don’t believe in the paranormal, but I knew then that this was going to be a very special place for me indeed. •