The London Library Magazine - Autumn 2022 (No.54)

TIM RICE

Maddie Mortimer Hanna Komar

Unlock a world of authentic experiences in Qatar.

DISPATCHES

D. Welcome from the Director 5 D. In remembrance

D. News 8 Annual General Meeting Laptop-free space in The Study New Voices Rise Vol 3 Donor boards update 2022 Christmas card revealed D. Collection Story 10 D. From the Archive 12

FEATURES

F. Don’t cry for me London Library 14 Tim Rice talks Evita, Little Richard and his time as Library President

F. Shelf service 22 From shelf stacking to esoteric research requests, meet the people who make the Library tick

F. Divine invention 32 Maddie Mortimer tackles illness and the sublime in her experimental debut novel

LAST WORDS

L. Events 38 Talks, a quiz and more

L. Annual report 40 Reviewing the Library’s finances

L. Meet a member 42

From PEN Belarus to St James’s Square with Hanna Komar

Edward Gardner & Karina Canellakis

Gardner conducts Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder, Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass Canellakis conducts Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5.

Celebrated artists

Including conductors Vladimir Jurowski, Karen Kamensek, Klaus Mäkelä and Enrique Mazzola. Soloists include Emanuel Ax, Danielle de Niese, Augustin Hadelich, Leif Ove Andsnes and Beatrice Rana.

A place to call home

A recurring theme of the season is belonging and displacement. Heiner Goebbels’s orchestral cycle A House of Call receives its UK premiere, and Gardner conducts Tippett’s landmark oratorio A Child of Our Time.

lpo.org.uk

2022/23 concert season at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall

‘John Carey is the finest literary critic of the age.’

Andrew Holgate, Sunday Times Literary Editor Yale

FOR THE LONDON LIBRARY

Josephine Noti Head of Marketing and Communications

Elaine Stabler

Marketing Executive, Media and Communications

Felicity Nelson Membership Director

The London Library 14 St James’s Square London SW1Y 4LG (020) 7766 4700 magazine@londonlibrary.co.uk

EDITORIAL: CULTURESHOCK

Contributors Rachel Potts, Alexander McFadyen, Deniz Nazim-Englund

Photography Andrew Kimber (cover), Catharina Pavitschitz, Chunghoon Seo, Frances Clack

Head of Creative Tess Savina

Art Director Alfonso Iacurci

Designer Thomas Carlile

Production Editor Claire Sibbick

Publisher Phil Allison

Production Manager Nicola Vanstone

Advertising Sales Cultureshock (020) 7735 9263

The London Library Magazine is published by Cultureshock on behalf of The London Library © 2022. All rights reserved. Charity No. 312175. Cultureshock 27b Tradescant Road London SW8 1XD (020) 7735 9263 cultureshockmedia.co.uk @cultureshockit

The views expressed in the pages of The London Library Magazine are not necessarily those of The London Library. The magazine does not accept responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or photographs. While every effort has been made to identify copyright holders, some omissions may occur.

ISSN 2398-4201

WELCOME

Endings and new beginnings

Welcome to the autumn 2022 issue of The London Library magazine. This issue marks the end of Sir Tim Rice’s term as the Library’s President. We are hugely grateful to Sir Tim for his dedication to the Library. His presidency has been filled with humour, generosity and musical events in the Reading Room. In our cover feature, Sir Tim speaks to Library member and The Independent Arts Editor Jessie Thompson about his reading habits, cricket and whether there will ever be a musical about the Library (perhaps one day!). We are all delighted that Sir Tim has agreed to continue as VicePresident, so this is by no means goodbye.

In this issue, we invite members “behind the desk” to meet the Member Services department, including Michael, who claims that the Back Stacks haven’t changed in 40 years, and Yvette, who reveals the location of her secret “ Harry Potter corner” in the fiction department. Also this issue, we meet Library member, debut novelist and Booker Prize longlistee, Maddie Mortimer.

As is tradition in our autumn issue, Library Treasurer Philip Broadley reviews the 2021-22 financial year (page 40). Despite new and ongoing challenges, the Library continues to make progress: reducing our operating deficit while growing collections and maintaining an excellent level of service. Our AGM will take place on 15 November in the Reading Room (see page 8), where members will formally confirm the incoming President, Helena Bonham Carter, who has accepted the appointment from the Library’s Trustees. I hope, like me, you look forward to welcoming Helena into her term.

Finally, I would like to express the Library’s great sorrow for the death of our Patron, Her Majesty The Queen. We are thankful to The Queen for her support of the Library over many years. •

Philip Marshall, Director

OPPORTUNITY TO CHAIR THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Our Chairman, Sir Howard Davies, will be stepping down from the Board in November 2023, on completion of his second four-year term in the position. We are deeply grateful to Sir Howard for his leadership of the Board and commitment to the Library throughout the years.

The role of the Chair is to lead the Board in ensuring the effective governance and strategic development of the Library. He or she will also act as a champion in raising awareness of the Library and promoting its work.

As Howard completes his final term, we are keen to hear from candidates who have a good understanding of governance gained in a non-executive or charity trustee role and with experience of chairing a board, committees or other senior meetings. Candidates should also have

excellent leadership and interpersonal skills that encourage collaboration, participation and consensus-building.

The successful candidate will need to be an enthusiastic ambassador for the Library and have the necessary time and commitment to fulfil the duties of Chair and Trustee.

Sir Howard says: ‘It has been a privilege to be the Chairman of The London Library since 2015. The role has been challenging at times, but rewarding, interesting and even fun so I would commend it to anyone interested in applying.’ •

→

For more information and details on how to apply, visit londonlibrary.co.uk/work-for-us/become-a-trustee

The closing date for applications is 30 November 2022

IN REMEMBRANCE

Her Majesty The Queen

The London Library was deeply saddened by the death of our Patron, Her Majesty The Queen on 8 September.

Queen Elizabeth II became the Library’s Patron in 2004, following the death of the Library’s former Patron, the Queen Mother in 2002. The Library remains thankful for Her Majesty’s service and commitment throughout her patronage.

As a mark of respect, a two-minute silence was held at 11am on 9 September, and a flag was flown at half-mast. The Library was closed on 19 September, the date of her funeral. Library Director Philip Marshall was honoured to represent the Library at the service.

An article dedicated to her patronage was published on the Library website and a book of condolence was made available for members to sign in the Issue Hall. Memorabilia featured in the article included photographs of Her Majesty in the Reading Room, taken during her visit for the Library’s 150th anniversary in 1993. • → Read the article at londonlibrary.co.uk/about-us/latest-news

The Queen visiting the Library with the Duke of Edinburgh in 1993

INAUGURATION DAY

Announcing the next Annual General Meeting

The Library’s 181st Annual General Meeting will be held in the Library and online at 6pm on Tuesday 15 November. Sir Tim Rice retires as President of The London Library this year, and we thank him for his time and commitment to the Library over the past five years. Sir Tim expresses his warmest wishes to the incoming President, Helena Bonham Carter, who has accepted the appointment from the Library’s Trustees. The appointment will be formally confirmed by members at the AGM. Please refer to the enclosed AGM notice or the Library website for details.

The meeting will also see Trustees propose an increase of £30 (around 5%) to ordinary annual membership, bringing it to £585 per annum from January 2023, or £545 for members who opt to pay by annual direct debit. Although a higher increase than recent years, it is significantly lower than expected inflation in recognition of the cost pressures we know members are currently facing. •

FRESH PERSPECTIVES

New Voices Rise: The Third Instalment

The third annual volume of New Voices Rise, an anthology of work from the 2021-22 cohort of The London Library’s Emerging Writers Programme, will be published later this year.

Each volume showcases an exciting array of new talent, featuring contributions spanning prose, poetry, non-fiction, graphic novels, stage and screenwriting. This volume will be no different, incorporating 13 poems, 10 extracts from novels in progress, eight works of non-fiction, eight works written for the stage or screen, six short stories, and one extract each from a graphic novel and graphic memoir. •

DIGITAL DETOX

Laptop-free space trialled in The Study

A six-month trial of The Study as a laptop-free space began in August. This follows feedback from the most recent member survey in which one-third of respondents said that having a laptop-free space in the Library was important to them.

Offering a mixed-use range of study spaces to suit all members’ needs is an essential requirement of the Library. Since allowing laptops in the Reading Room in 2020, usage of the room has risen by 63%. •

→ The trial will run until the end of January 2023. All feedback throughout the trial period is welcome, please email feedback@londonlibrary.co.uk

The Study will be a laptop-free space until the end of January 2023. Photo: Catharina Pavitschitz

SEASONAL SKETCH

2022 Christmas card revealed

This year’s London Library Christmas card designed by illustrator and author, Natsko Seki has been unveiled. Cards will be available to order from November, along with more Library merchandise, and all proceeds will go towards supporting the Library.

Natsko grew up in Tokyo and graduated with a BA in Illustration from Brighton University in 2005. In 2021 she won the UK Literacy Association Book Award for The Last Paper Crane, a haunting exploration of the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and her fold-out book and interactive game Broadway Market was shortlisted in the World Illustration Awards.

Natsko’s illustrations are permanently displayed at the City of Bath World Heritage Centre, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, and Whittington Health NHS Trust in London. She finds inspiration in flora and fauna, buildings and London’s multicultural milieu. •

→ Order at shop.londonlibrary.co.uk or reception. Natsko Seki is represented by Artistique International

A LASTING LEGACY

Donor boards update

This autumn, the Library installed four donor boards in a newly created space on the main staircase, alongside existing artwork of major supporters to the Library –Valerie Eliot, Drue Heinz, and Sir Ian Anstruther.

The new boards recognise the Library’s Founders’ Circle patrons, major donors to specific projects or general funds, and large donations to The Tom Stoppard Innovation Fund. We have also updated the board that honours those who have left a legacy to the Library.

Over the years, the Library has used both temporary and permanent boards to recognise philanthropic support. The Founders’ Circle, Major Donors and Legacy boards will be updated annually, with boards added to recognise donors to distinct projects. We are delighted to publicly recognise philanthropic supporters, who play a crucial role in ensuring the Library’s long-term sustainability. •

The London Library’s 2022 Christmas card, designed by Natsko Seki, who is represented by Artistique International

COLLECTION STORY

Taking reference books to a new level

Known to members and staff as the heart of the Library, the Reading Room – which will turn 125 next year – is home to a treasured reference collection, located on the room’s ground floor and mezzanine level. The volumes are available to browse in person, and while they can’t be borrowed, all titles are discoverable on the online catalogue, Catalyst.

At more than 4,300 titles, comprising 9,001 volumes, Fay Harris, Head of Collection Care and Discovery, says: “We have everything from a Dictionary and Encyclopaedia of Paper and Paper-making to A Glossary of Shakespeare’s Sexual Language. And what budding author wouldn’t delight in A Dictionary of Fictional Characters? ” You’ll also

find titles such as A Who’s Who of Nicknames and The Encyclopaedia of Executions; all 12 volumes of the Farmer’s Cyclopedia of Agriculture sit just down the shelf from A Dictionary of Euphemisms and a Dictionary of Magic (turn to chapter G and you will find an entry for “Garlic: a charm against the evil eye and assaults by vampires”). There are a number of reference books in foreign languages too, including Occitan and Frisian. The oldest book is an Italian bibliography, dated 1702–05.

The collection serves a dual purpose. By day it provides inspiration and information to members for their writing and research; by night it is an atmospheric backdrop for the Library’s public events programme. •

Left: Reference books in the Reading Room.

Above: The Farmer’s Cyclopedia of Agriculture. Photos: Chunghoon Seo

FROM THE ARCHIVE

Friendship has always been the foundation of the Library community, as proven by British writer Rebecca West and American singer Paul Robeson

Paul Robeson (1898-1976) was one of the most famous Black singers, actors and activists of the early 20th century. Born in Princeton, New Jersey, his father was a former slave who became a preacher. Robeson excelled academically from an early age and won a scholarship to Rutgers University, where he studied law and became a star of the football team (he briefly turned professional before showbusiness called). And, in 1934, Robeson became a member of The London Library.

He first performed in Britain in 1922, but his big West End break came in 1928, in Show Boat. The musical was a hit. Robeson’s rendition of Ol’ Man River became his signature song, and its success enabled him to buy a house in Hampstead. London literary society, including the writers Aldous Huxley, H G Wells, and George Bernard Shaw all sought out Robeson’s company.

Huxley, Wells and Shaw were all members of the Library, but it was the journalist, novelist and critic

Paul Robeson. Photo: Scherl/Süddeutsche Zeitung Photo

Rebecca West (1892-1983) who nominated Robeson to join in 1934, not long after seeing him in a revival of Eugene O’Neill play, All God’s Chillun Got Wings. West wrote that he “gave one of the most thrilling performances I have ever seen. He put all the forces of his vitality behind the role and built a character so vast that in the memory one sees him as larger than life-size.”

Robeson and West remained friends for many years. They shared a love of theatre, reading and books. In the early 1900s West, whose real name was Cicily Fairfield, had trained as an actress, and took her pen name from a character in Ibsen’s play Rosmersholm. During Robeson’s time in London he enrolled at the School of Oriental and African Studies to study phonetics and Swahili.

The 1930s also marked Robeson’s emergence as a leading voice in the struggle against racism, and he became a fervent socialist. West was a firm supporter of Robeson’s activism, accompanying him to his 1937 speech at the Royal Albert Hall in support of the Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War. It was there that he gave

one of his most famous speeches to the assembled intelligentsia: “Every artist, every scientist, every writer must decide now where he stands. He has no alternative.”

West also joined Robeson and his wife Eslanda on holidays. West was self-confident and opinionated, and unafraid to criticise Robeson’s many extramarital affairs. He once described the English actress Yolande Jackson, who he fell for in the 1930s and wanted to marry, as “the love of his life”. In West’s opinion she was “vaguely shady”.

Robeson returned to the US just before the Second World War. As for West, by 1945 she was a major figure of London literary society. Her reputation would only grow with the reports she made about the trial of Nazi war criminals in Nuremburg for The New Yorker, later collected in the book A Train of Powder. She was a prolific user of the Library, and went on to become a VicePresident in 1967. •

Members can refer a friend to the Library to receive £50 off their annual renewal. Visit londonlibrary.co.uk/members/member-offers

“West wrote that Robeson ‘gave one of the most thrilling performances I have ever seen’ in All God’s Chillun Got Wings ”

Left: Rebecca West. Photo: Madame Yévonde. Right: Robeson’s Library joining form

Sir Tim Rice has been President of The London Library since 2017

DON’T CRY FOR ME LONDON LIBRARY

As he ends his tenure as President of the Library, Sir Tim Rice reflects on his serendipitous route into musical theatre, life as an avowed bibliophile and the golden rules of lyric writing

Photography by Andrew Kimber

Could there ever be a musical about The London Library? Let’s ask a man who knows. Sir Tim Rice, the Library’s outgoing President and one of the world’s leading lyricists, thinks it would be quite a good idea, actually. “The Library could be the basic scene, and you could dip into any era,” he suggests. “Your hero or heroine would be able to go to a shelf and ask ‘What’s this book?’ then, suddenly, the characters would come alive.”

It’s not a project that’s in the works, sadly – but Rice has written a song about the Library. Sung to the tune of Dean Martin’s Memories Are Made of This, it was performed at his final President’s Party earlier this year; it sings the praises of its vast collection: “Name your author, he’ll be here / So will she, let’s make that clear.” (Read the lyrics on p20.)

Rice redefined British musical theatre in the 1970s with shows including Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, in a now-legendary partnership with composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, but later works such as Disney’s The Lion King, written with Sir Elton John, and Chess, a collaboration with ABBA’s Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, are also firm fixtures of the musical theatre canon.

He took over the Library presidency from Sir Tom Stoppard in 2017, which he considered a great honour, being familiar with why it mattered: his daughter Eva and son Donald had often used it as a place to study. “I was aware of how important the Library can be to writers – young or established. It’s a great atmosphere. You’ve got a wonderful combination of a) it’s quiet, and b) if you need advice or help or inspiration, it’s on the shelves behind you.” But, he adds, “It’s not only for writers – it’s for readers as well. And writers couldn’t get by without readers.”

He admits that he’s sad that his “reign” as the Library’s President is coming to an end; he’s loved looking at all of the “ancient books”, and credits the place with throwing some great gatherings of like-minded people. The five years have “flown by” – not least because they were, unfortunately, disrupted by the pandemic, though “the Library made a pretty good effort to get back to normal fairly speedily.”

We’re speaking on Zoom, with Rice sitting in front of a well-stocked bookshelf at his home in Henley-on-Thames. A self-described bibliophile, he has a vast collection of his own and has been reorganising it since moving house five years ago. “I haven’t quite got to the point of sticking labels on my shelves, but that’s not far off,” he jokes. “As you might imagine, I’ve got a lot of books on the history of musical theatre. I’ve probably got more on rock ’n’ roll, because, really, I consider myself to be a clapped-out rock ’n’ roller rather than a clapped-out musical theatre guy,” he says, with a laugh. He has around 30 books about Elvis Presley, and a similar number on The Beatles, all of which he’s read cover to cover. He’s also a keen cricket fan – he once wrote a short musical about it for the Queen’s 60th birthday – and estimates he owns about 1,000 books on the sport.

Born in 1944, Rice’s talent for writing became clear at school. “Essays were a kind of punishment. People would make you write an essay, a bit like doing 100 lines. I used to get a lot of essays, in my opinion, for not very serious crimes. One of the prefects said, ‘Actually, it’s because we think your essays are quite funny and we like to read them.’ I thought, ‘Well, thanks!’”

The writerly gene runs in Rice’s family. His daughter Eva’s 2005 novel The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets was a huge hit, and her latest will be released next year. His mother Joan was a writer, too, but didn’t publish her first book until she was in her 80s. Eva had shown her grandmother’s wartime diaries to her agent, and they were subsequently published as Sand in My Shoes: War-time diaries of a WAAF in 2006. “It’s about the war to a certain extent, but it’s really about a young woman from age 19 to 23,” Rice explains. When his children were small, he read them Great Expectations at bedtime, and his fiction tastes span from Agatha Christie to Adrian Mole. His appreciation for great storytelling and humour are key to understanding why his own lyrics are so good. Think of the instant characterbuilding in Evita ’s Another Suitcase, Another Hall (“I don’t expect my love affairs to last for long”), the hard-won wisdom in Chess duet I Know Him So Well (“Looking back

Tim Rice performs with Marty, Kim and Ricky Wilde at his final President’s Party. Photo: Harry Elletson

DON’T CRY

“I’ve got a lot of books on the history of musical theatre, but I’ve probably got more on rock ’n’ roll”

I could have played it differently”) or the witty repartee in The Lion King ’s I Just Can’t Wait to Be King (“If this is where the monarchy is headed, count me out”).

He has five handy rules for any budding lyricists: “One: there are no rules. Two: nobody knows anything, but if you know you don’t know anything, you’re ahead of the game. Three: keep it short. Four: story is king. Five: make it funny.” In terms of his process, any writer will be reassured that even Rice is prone to a bit of procrastination. “One always thinks of something else to do, like sharpen your pencils, or put your library books in order.”

The lyricists that Rice admires – Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Eddie Cochran – speak to the influence that rock ’n’ roll has had on his work. The lyrics to Elvis Presley’s Jailhouse Rock , written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, “would be a credit to any Broadway show,” he suggests. Love Potion No. 9, by the same pair, is “a little musical in itself”, with lines such as “I told her that I was a flop with chicks / I’ve been this way since 1956”. And he loves the unique opening line to Little Richard’s Tutti Frutti – “A wop bop a loo bop a lop bom bom”; if you heard it on the radio, he grins with pleasure, “You’d go: ‘Hello! What was that?’”

His career in musical theatre happened by accident rather than by design. He was training to be a solicitor

– thinking he should get “a respectable job” – when he was introduced to Lloyd Webber in 1965 by the publisher Desmond Elliott. Elliott had turned down Rice’s proposal to write a book about pop music, but was aware of his keen interest in songwriting. He knew Lloyd Webber, then about to start a History degree at Oxford, was “desperately determined to write musicals” and looking for a collaborator.

The pair’s first show The Likes of Us wasn’t picked up, and Rice took a job at record company EMI. But shortly after, a schoolmaster at London’s Colet Court school (now St Paul’s Juniors) who had heard their early work asked if they’d write something for his pupils. The result was Joseph – their first big hit. “Partly because I didn’t know what I was doing, and partly because Andrew did – that combination worked rather well. And we were able to be funny and write lots of humourous music and wonderful tunes, and the kids loved it,” he explains. “I often think that if I’d pursued the traditional way of writing musicals – whatever that is – I doubt if I’d have got anywhere.”

It is characteristic, I discover, for Rice to be selfdeprecating. His proudest moment, he says, was the opening night of Evita – the moment he knew that his previous success hadn’t been a fluke. When I ask for his thoughts on the state of musical theatre, he claims to be no expert – but is sceptical about shows that try to follow a

“If I’d pursued the traditional way of writing musicals – whatever that is –I doubt if I’d have got anywhere”

MEMORIES ARE MADE OF THIS – LONDON LIBRARY VERSION

Backing vocals in verses: Sweet, sweet memories you’ve given me You can’t beat, the memories you’ve given me

Verse 1

Welcome – make yourselves at home (Sweet, sweet…) Please feel free to probe and roam (You can’t beat…) Around our shelves

And lose yourselves In some fascinating tome (Sweet, sweet…) (You can’t beat…)

Verse 2

Name your author he’ll be here (Sweet, sweet…) So will she, let’s make that clear (You can’t beat…) And we say each Book is a peach

Whether new or yesteryear (Sweet, sweet…) (You can’t beat…)

Bridge 1

This dream of Tom Carlyle’s Has left us 17 miles Of books from Genesis to Potter All those immortal names Charles Dickens, Henry James You name him, we guarantee we got her

Verse 3

And no matter what your kicks (Sweet, sweet…) Pigeon racing, politics (You can’t beat…) Romance, pin-ups, World Wars, World Cups

It’s all right here in the mix (Sweet, sweet…) (You can’t beat…)

Bridge 2

Then if drama grips you more Ibsen, Chekhov, Shakespeare, Shaw Hampton, Hare or Stoppard, Harold Pinter Molière, Euripides

Lotsa foreign blokes like these Really it depends on what you’re in-ter

Verse 4

George Eliot, Jane Austen, Brontës three (Sweet, sweet…) Christie, Mary Shelley, Harper Lee (You can’t beat…) V. Woolf, S. Plath

Just do the math

Ladies here are no minority (Sweet, sweet…) (You can’t beat…)

Bridge 3

But if science makes your day Heisenberg & Galile –O [Interruption as per Freddie Mercury’s Bohemian Rhapsody] (“Galileo, Galileo, Galileo, Figaro”) O and then there’s Hawking’s 11 dimensions You like Donald? What the… You’re in luck Donald Bradman, Donald Duck Plus some other Donalds we don’t mention

Verse 5

Nonetheless please walk the line Or you’ll get a hefty fine No shorts no bling Don’t snog don’t sing Please get out of here by half past nine

So hear it one more time for Thomas Carlyle and The London Library!

Verse 6 – up a key

Let us praise what he has done (Sweet, sweet…) Here since 1841 (You can’t beat…) He’s tops, he’s class Let’s raise a glass To this perfect house of fun

formula, such as a recent trend for musicals based on films. The phenomenal success of a show such as SIX the Musical, a pop musical comedy about Henry VIII’s wives that was first spotted at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe, gives Rice “a lot of hope”. He notes that its writers Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss obey the rules he’s mentioned: it’s short, funny and original. “The thing about SIX is I suspect it was an accident – which is not an insult. Joseph was an accident,” he says. “I can’t imagine they said ‘Let’s write a musical and take it to the West End.’ They probably said, ‘Let’s write this fun show and see what happens’.”

A relish for rule-breaking seems to be the common denominator in great new musical voices. “When we turned up in the 1970s, a lot of people thought we were pretty ghastly because we weren’t like Rodgers and Hammerstein.

And I thought, ‘Well, they’re probably right.’ But, in fact, the sort of stuff we did turned out to be quite influential for other people,” he observes.

Cheerfully, for audiences, Rice is busy at work on three shows. Aida , his 1998 musical with Elton John, will finally get a London premiere soon, and his 2013 show From Here To Eternity will be revived later this year at the Charing Cross Theatre. And he’d like to bring Chess back to Broadway, where it previously opened in 1988. “It was a bit of a flop, to put it mildly. The word I’m looking for is disaster!” He admits, too, that he’s got “a few new ideas”. A musical about The London Library? We can live in hope. Jessie Thompson is Arts Editor for the Evening Standard

In 1994 Rice collaborated with Elton John on Disney’s animated picture The Lion King. Photo: Walt Disney Pictures

Michael Booth, Chief Library Assistant, in the Back Stacks

SHELF SERVICE

From bespoke help with obscure research requests to induction tours, five of the Member Services team explain the role they play in the Library community

Photography by Catharina Pavitschitz

Yvette Dickerson’s favourite place in the Library is what she calls her “Harry Potter corner – a desk under the stairs on the mezzanine level in Fiction where nobody can find you. It’s a complete hideaway when I’m writing. I try not to pout if it’s in use. It reminds me of when I was younger – I used to hide behind the curtain to read on the window seat under the stairs at home.”

Yvette, who joined the Member Services team five years ago, came from working in the library at SOAS University of London. She sees her role as being a “pathfinder”; giving members a nudge in the right direction when they come to her with questions about their research. “People know that if it’s out there, I’ll find it,” she tells me when we meet in the Library’s offices. “We’re incredibly well-resourced on every type of subject, no matter how obscure.”

That might be a 1950s guide to Europe for travellers on a shoestring budget that’s full of charming antique restaurants – a favourite find of Amanda Stebbings, the Head of Member Services, who joined the staff following

20 years in public libraries where she specialised in running skill sessions and acquiring new books – or an 1845 book called Wild Flowers and their Teachings. “It’s about British wildflowers with excerpts from poetry,” says James Devine, who joined the Library’s staff on a year-long graduate trainee programme in 2017, beginning with Member Services. “But rather than illustrations it has mounted, dried examples of flowers, and it’s just a beautiful book – approaching botany in this very literary way.”

Member Services encompasses all the everyday tasks that keep the Library running – fetching books and returning them to shelves, sending out postal loans, answering enquiries, providing training and advice to members on how to use the Library’s resources. A good librarian should never simply say no when asked if the Library has a book, Yvette explains: “Always make sure that you’ve given them something to lead them on.” Recent conversations with members about their research have prompted the Library to “beef up” in areas as diverse as punk and Japanese fashion, and Yvette has been

Above: James Devine, now Stack Manager in Collections Care, at his desk Right: Wild Flowers and their Teachings (1845)

delighted to bring her knowledge of the political and social struggles in the 1970s and 1980s, such as Rock Against Racism and LGBT liberation movements – which she modestly calls “potted histories”, though she studied them at university – to the table.

She says the membership has become more reflective of the diversity of modern-day London in recent years, which only adds to the collections’ depth. As James says, this continues the Library’s evolution over decades. “I’m very fond of the literature section. I think that really reflects the 20th-century history of immigrants moving

to London and becoming members of the Library – all of the French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian collections.” He now works in Collections Care as a Stack Manager, rehousing books that need to be moved into the safes or special collections, planning shelving layouts and identifying titles that need to be sent for restoration work.

In recent years, as well as the membership becoming more multicultural, there has been an influx of younger members joining, says Michael Booth, the Library’s longest serving current employee. He started working here in 1978, at age 18, intending it to be a temporary

Stebbings, Head of Member Services, by her desk

Amanda

with members about their research

“Conversations

have prompted the Library to ‘beef up’ in areas as diverse as punk and Japanese fashion”

Yvette Dickerson, Member Services Librarian. Photo: Suzie McCracken

job while he applied for art school. “I tried for a couple of years to do that. Then when that didn’t happen, by that time I’d sort of become part of the place.” Of those early years, he mostly remembers the Library being far smaller – “If you wanted to speak to a colleague, you could just go across the hall” – as well as the “quite formidable members. Even the head librarian was scared of them; he used to quickly disappear or duck behind the desk. There was one particular woman that always announced herself with a loud belch as soon as she entered the Issue Hall.”

Nowadays, there’s a sociable feel to the Library, Yvette says: “People come as shy members just sticking to themselves, and the next thing you see, they go to lunch with another member. That’s really heartening. I think I’ve seen romances, too.”

She describes it as a “hangout” away from university and the home, where young people can concentrate more easily – in a city where space is at a premium. Being a friendly ear, she says, whether that’s hearing the “horror stories” about members’ flatmates or just having a casual chat, is what makes it a community. “We know that for

older members we may be the only conversation they’ll have for the day, so we don’t mind making a little bit of a fuss of them.” This personal touch is what makes The London Library so different to many public libraries, explains Samantha Gibson, a Library Assistant who answers day-to-day enquiries and works on postal loans to members, quaintly still known as Country Orders, as well as inter-library loans. Her 10-year anniversary of working at the Library was in June.

“When I first started we had an elderly artist who lived in France and wasn’t on the internet. We always looked forward to getting her letters and phone calls – it would be whatever she’d read in the news. She had heard the artist Walter Sickert might have been Jack the Ripper, and so she wanted to know about that, and then the next day she had read that she should be doing pelvic floor exercises, so wanted more information. She kept us on our toes.”

Building these relationships begins during induction, which Amanda points out aren’t just for new joiners; members can request one at any time to reacquaint themselves with the Library’s myriad rooms and discover unfamiliar sections. “Induction is important because it

Library Assistant Samantha Gibson weights books for postal loans

Left: A copy of The Two Gentlemen of Verona by Shakespeare from the collection of miniatures that Devine helps to look after

Back Stacks haven’t changed since I first walked through the door 40 years ago”

introduces members to someone on the staff who they know,” she explains. As James puts it: “It’s always best to teach a man to fish. That has been very rewarding.”

Amanda reaches for a more unusual metaphor when describing the team’s purpose: “We are a spider, because we’re a first point of contact for members. So anything that’s happening in the Library – on our ‘web’ – we need to know about.” No two days are the same, she adds: “I might think I’m going to be contacting ex-members who’ve still got books, but I could end up running around the building, checking what the temperature is.”

This means she typically has less time to assist with research, but she does tell me of one request which illustrates the kind of detail the team deals in. Asked by a member which titles an ordinary person might have had on their shelves during the English Civil War in the 1640s, Amanda at first thought, “‘Where on earth do I start with it?’ Fortunately, I love social history, and there are a lot of books that have fantastic bibliographies. I ended up being able to give this member some diaries of a yeoman farmer who collected books.”

In 2023, she is looking forward to working on more schools outreach. Twenty London state schools are currently given subsidised membership of the Library, so that students can carry out research for their Extended Project Qualification, a part of the AS level curriculum in which they are tasked with producing a report on any topic they choose. Amanda picks three or four books to guide them towards relevant sections, but tangents often occur, as is the way in the Library’s stacks.

While the job has become less physically demanding than in Michael’s early years, when the Library’s antique book lifts – now electric – operated on a pulley system, it’s still a busy role. So during a stressful day, where do they go for a quiet moment? Gone are the days of cigarette breaks and snowball fights on the roof 40 years ago, but one place remains the same.

“The Back Stacks haven’t changed since I first walked through the door when I was 18,” he explains. “You have that same smell of the old books – it always has that atmosphere that I still remember.”

•

McFadyen is an arts and culture writer based in London Left:

Alex

“The

Maddie Mortimer in St James’s Square

DIVINE INVENTION

Maddie Mortimer has made waves with her unorthodox, lyrical first book, about a woman’s terminal illness. Library books helped her reach into its deeper themes of religion and sexuality

by Catharina Pavitschitz

Photography

“ I’m a bit of a purist,” says Maddie Mortimer, one of three debut novelists on this year’s Booker longlist. The 26-year-old author can often be found among some of St James’s oldest bookshelves. “I’m at The London Library; I’m going to soak up as much Woolfian atmosphere as I possibly can.”

The Victorian Back Stacks are where she normally works, and where she edited the manuscript of Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies. It was published in March this year – The Telegraph called it “radically creative” – and won the Desmond Elliott Prize in July. Earlier, there had been a tussle with a fellow Library member over a desk in the Writers’ Room. “It got pretty intense,” she says. “No words were exchanged, but there was a lot of energy in the room.” She realised her irregular start times would never lead her to victory.

She loves the fiction aisles, and says her reading tastes are “restless”. Her desk might be piled up with works by Proust, Wordsworth, Dante and Nobel Prize-winning poet Louise Glück, of which the Library has a large collection. “A nightmare for the librarians at the end of the day,” she says, but good for creativity. Dipping into other’s worlds “reminds you to keep things fun if you’re stuck or feeling too heavy in whatever you’re writing”.

Mortimer started Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies in 2019. Over 432 pages, it tells the story of Lia, who is dying of breast cancer. When Mortimer was 14, she lost her mother – the writer and journalist Katie Pearson, to the same disease. In 2010, Mortimer wrote the final few entries of Pearson’s column, ‘The Wee Beastie’, for The Times. Her experimental novel is as much revisiting this time in her life as it is questioning the form that a novel can take, and purism is out the window.

Lines and words are unbound from the grid of the page, in the manner of Anne Carson and Max Porter, prose poets who break the boundaries of form. Mortimer quotes Kierkegaard and Auden, as well as artists Edward Hopper and Goya. She taught herself how to use graphic design software Adobe InDesign to make her text undulate or bend upwards as if ascending steps. (She needed help to turn the words “Who the f*ck are you?” into an exploding firework.) She was inspired, she says, by the time-jumping structure of Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster film Interstellar ; in Maps, there is much pacy dialogue. “I was always really excited about trying to make something that felt ‘plotty’ and propulsive while maintaining some of the poetry of meditative prose,” she says.

Through Carson, Mortimer also came to one of the more unconventional mid-20th century thinkers, Simone Weil. Weil taught philosophy, worked in Renault’s car factories to experience the suffering of working people and embraced then renounced Marxism. An agnostic Jew, she became intensely religious from around 1935 after experiencing spiritual ecstasy – once in a Portuguese church and once while reading poetry. She died in 1943 in England at age 34, having refused to eat enough, either in solidarity with France’s victims of war or as an ascetic impulse to draw close to God, or both.

Mortimer started borrowing Weil’s works from The London Library during the pandemic, and she became a big influence. “[She was] a kind of genius akin to that of the saints” according to TS Eliot, and “Camus said she was the only great spirit of our time,” Mortimer says. “She writes beautifully about God, and the self and embodied experience.” Mortimer quotes Weil’s book Gravity and Grace in Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies, in which faith and

READING LIST

Four books inspired by Maddie Mortimer’s explorations in theology

GR AVITY AND GRACE

BY SIMONE WEIL (1943)

All Weil’s major works were published posthumously. This was the first, a collection of writings not originally intended for publication, compiled by the leftist Christian philosopher Gustave Thibon. Weil lived with him and his wife for a year, working at his vineyard, before fleeing to Morocco with her Jewish parents in 1941. She left him her assorted notebooks. Brief texts about spirituality and ethics engage with ancient Greek, Egyptian and eastern philosophies, with a troubling chapter about Judaism.

BEYO ND GOD THE FATHER: TOWARDS A PHILOSOPHY OF WOMEN’S LIBERATION

BY MARY DALY (1973)

From this radical critique of Christianity, Mortimer quotes the line “if God is male, then male is God”. Daly sets out to link the rise of monotheism with that of patriarchal societies, and in reclaiming a feminist theology she recasts the story of Eve’s “fall”. She writes: “The women’s revolution… has everything to do with the search for ultimate meaning and reality, which some would call God.”

THE NE ED FOR ROOTS

BY SIMONE WEIL (1949)

Weil’s best-known work was written in 1943 while she was working in London for the Free French organisation, led by Charles de Gaulle. Starting life as a report about the regeneration of France that might follow the German occupation, Weil’s thesis covers authoritarianism, the French Revolution and the link between physical labour and spirituality. De Gaulle was not impressed, but many have praised its humanity. Albert Camus said it was “impossible to imagine the rebirth of Europe without taking into consideration the suggestions [it] outlined.”

THE SOV EREIGNTY OF GOOD BY IRIS MURDOCH (1970)

The novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch was among Weil’s admirers. Here she “borrows” Weil’s theory of attention “to express the idea of a just and loving gaze directed upon an individual reality. I believe this to be the characteristic and proper mark of the moral agent.” To “attend” our fellow humans completely, Weil believed the will and ego needed to be discarded, mirroring God’s love. Murdoch’s view of morality is more secular, but leaves room for spirituality.

sainthood is a constant motif. Lia’s father is a priest: a young man arrives in the night to their home and washes the young Lia’s feet — and doesn’t mind when she throws up on him.

Sexual power is also a theme in the book. Mortimer sees something erotic in Weil’s mysticism. “This idea of monotheism being such a masculine force, being something that forms Lia – and Simone – and how masculinity in religious women’s lives forms their heterosexuality was something I was really interested in interrogating,” she says.

Much commentary on the new novel covers its treatment of illness. There are passages in a mysterious voice that rampages through Lia’s body and mind. This inhuman narrator is also fun; Mortimer said she based it on the children’s antihero Eloise, a naughty six-yearold created by the actress Kay Thompson in the 1950s.

“I still find it slightly uncomfortable when people say it’s ‘narrated by cancer’,” she says. “It’s not that. It’s many things. If anything it’s Lia’s creative processing of her own illness. It’s the worst of her. It’s cellular. It’s so much more and less than the voice of cancer. I read Illness as Metaphor by Susan Sontag. I’m aware of the very fraught, difficult space that kind of discussion occupies, I guess. And you have to be careful, don’t you? Because cancer is something that affects so many people.” But marketing is what it is. “No one’s going to put my spiel about the Jungian trickster archetype on a blurb.”

While Mortimer’s background is faith-free, religious studies was one of her favourite subjects at school. In one class, her teacher asked every atheist in the room to raise their hands, and the sea of responses panicked her; everyone’s belief “that the world we live in is the only one”. She got upset, her classmates were confused – her hand had also gone up. “It felt like a real moment.”

Reading the notes and diaries she wrote shortly after her mother’s death, she was shocked at her certainty in an afterlife. “It must have guided me through some of the grief of it all. And this book must have come out of those assumptions dissolving a bit and me needing to find a way

of preserving an energy that no longer remained in my life. Like fiction being the closest thing that we have today to religion… It’s what it does to our brains. This commitment and belief in things that aren’t real, that don’t exist. I don’t think anything else in the world today fills that space.”

The American novelist Marilynne Robinson is another fixture on her overstuffed Library desk, although they are formally worlds apart. Robinson is someone who “writes grace so beautifully”, Mortimer says and her novels set in small towns including Gilead (winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for fiction) and Home are key texts. “That’s the thing that I‘m most interested in trying to write; a sense of awe and wonder, and how the most domestic scenes or settings or moments can be sublime in their own ways, trying to bring some of that magic into the everyday.”

Mortimer studied English at Bristol University. While she refined the first manuscript of Maps, she split her time between the Library and working in a vintage clothes shop in Covent Garden. She is also a TV and film screenwriter: 2018’s coming of age short film The Words picked up nominations on the festival circuit. The readability of Maps might owe something to this training, but she plans to write more fiction. She likes its draw on her emotions and instincts. “Screenwriting is a bit more of a science,” she says.

A second novel is underway, which she calls “Little Women meets American Psycho meets Beckett”. After such a personal first project, Mortimer wanted to make her next one small, more straightforward and less complicated, but 30 pages in she had three timelines on the go. Perhaps something epic, and possibly sublime, is emerging once again from the quiet stacks of the Library. •

Rachel Potts is a writer and editor based in London

→ Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies is published by Picador

EVENTS

Hear tales from a legendary pop career, join a masterclass in writing short stories and enjoy a Library-inspired quiz night

27 October

QUIZ NIGHT! (Join the wait list)

In the spirit of friendly competition, gentle communal sparring and brain-teasing jollity, we’re inviting members to take part in a quiz night. Writer and Library Ambassador John O’Farrell will be your host in a series of Library-inspired rounds. Bring a friend, create a team or just come along to meet fellow members.

7.30pm – 10pm, in person

5 November SHORT STORY WRITING MASTERCLASS WITH ZOE GILBERT

In partnership with Word Factory, the national short story organisation, acclaimed short story writer Zoe Gilbert leads this masterclass looking at modern day folktales and radical writing, taking inspiration from former Library member Angela Carter.

10am – 1pm, in person

11 November WRITE AND SHINE: A SENSE OF PLACE

Join Write & Shine for an early morning virtual writing workshop, led by Gemma Seltzer. Her most recent book, Ways Of Living, reveals the stories of 10 women in London who forged identities that challenged existing norms. The session will use the work and ideas of George Eliot as inspiration.

7.30am – 9.15am, online

Above, from left: Short story writer Zoe Gilbert; Gemma Seltzer will lead a writing workshop at the Library on 11 November. Photos: courtesy of the authors

17 November

GOOD POP, BAD POP: JARVIS COCKER WITH OLIVIA LAING

(Join the wait list)

Iconic musician (and Library member) Jarvis Cocker joins us for an intimate gathering in the Reading Room to discuss his recent book Good Pop, Bad Pop, in conversation with writer Olivia Laing. The Sunday Times bestselling memoir is told through the prism of a loft clear-out, exploring the jumble of objects that he finds in the process.

7.30pm – 8.30pm, in person

8 December

SAVE THE DATE: LONDON LIBRARY MEMBERS’ CHRISTMAS PARTY

Join fellow London Library members and staff in raising a glass to celebrate the festive season. Event details to be announced soon.

For more information, and to be the first to hear about events at the Library, refer to the fortnightly newsletter, scan this QR code or visit londonlibrary.co.uk/whats-on

Above: Jarvis Cocker, whose bestselling memoir Good Pop, Bad Pop is out now. Photo: Tom Jamieson

EMERGING FROM THE PANDEMIC

Philip Broadley, the Library’s Treasurer, reviews the 2021-22 financial year and examines the way forward through the pressures of high inflation

The Library’s 2022 annual report is now available online. For all but two weeks of the financial year, the Library was able to offer a full service to members. Members could access the collections, postal loans continued to be provided free of charge, and in-person events resumed. There was also significant investment in the Library, funded by the Tom Stoppard Innovation Fund (TSIF).

loaned out, 40% more than last year, with 15% through the post.

Membership and usage

For the fourth successive year, net membership grew. We welcomed a record 1,300 new members and ended with a total of 7,392 members. The retention rate of 86% was slightly improved, but more than 1,000 members chose not to renew, and membership has fallen in the first few months of the current year.

The Trustees are aware of the pressures on everyone’s income. We believe it is important to do everything we can to retain members by upholding a high level of service and keeping membership fees as low as possible. At the 2022 AGM, Trustees will propose fee increases of 5%, significantly below the current inflation rate.

Library usage increased this year. Nearly 59,000 books were

Members also continue to utilise our digital resources. More than 190,000 articles were accessed via JSTOR and ProQuest this year. The Library spent more than £85,000 on digital resources, including the addition of Artstor to our eLibrary. Nearly 3,600 new printed items were added to the collection at a cost of £170,000, and a further 20,000 items were added to the online catalogue.

The table opposite summarises the results of the past three years and shows that the Library’s total funds increased by £627,000 in 2022.

Membership and trading income increased by 7% as the number of members grew and in-person events and venue hire resumed. Running costs increased by 13%, although more than £500,000 of expenditure was funded by TSIF. The underlying operating costs were broadly flat.

Fundraising income was lower than 2021 as the prior year included the generous legacy of £1.1m from Christopher Smith and government Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme grants. This year we recognised a legacy from Stephen James of £360,000 as part of unrestricted funds.

Each year-end, the Library’s financial investments are reported at their market value. Although stock markets fell after the invasion of Ukraine, markets increased in value overall this year and we had net investment gains of £644,000. The accounts also recognise an increase in the surplus of the Staff Superannuation Fund of £706,000, although the Trustees do not consider this as available for the Library to use.

Total funds at year end were £31.05m, of which endowment funds represent £5.9m.

The value of donations

Once again we received substantial support from members and supporters, all of whom are listed in the annual report. This is vital for an organisation that receives no regular public funding. The Trustees thank everyone who has supported the Library whether through the annual fund, the Founders’ Circles, gifts of books, or in other ways.

Over the summer the Library received notification of two substantial legacies. These are not yet recognised in the accounts but I anticipate them having a substantial effect on the Library’s finances in future.

Financial Review

Library operations

2022 Total 2021 Total 2020 Total £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000

Membership and trading income 2,894 2,700 2,844 Less: related expenditure (4,437) (3,942) (3,759) (1,543) (1,243) (915)

Fundraising activity

Fundraising income 915 1,999 722 Less: related expenditure (329) (289) (434) 585 1,710 288

Net investment income 236 196 319 Gains/(losses) in the value of investments 644 1,034 (568) Increase/(reduction) in the estimated pension surplus 706 711 (382)

NET MOVEMENT IN FUNDS 627 2,409 (1,258)

Continued focus on the operating deficit

The Library met the strategic objective to further reduce the operating deficit this year. The deficit was £164,000 and its steady reduction from 2018 is shown in the table below. There have been some changes to the method of calculating the deficit this year, which are fully

Operating deficit

described in the annual report.

Prior years in the table have been calculated under the new method.

The Trustees remain committed to eliminating the operating deficit by March 2024 and anticipate a further reduction in the current year. However, high levels of inflation, which have not

been experienced for a generation, present financial challenges to the Library and members alike.

Despite this, thanks to the support of our members and the commitment of our staff, the Library has emerged from the pandemic well placed to cope with the next period.

2022 2021 2020 2019 2018

£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 (164) (384) (404) (541) (634)

MEET A MEMBER

Belarusian poet and translator Hanna

Komar

on working in exile

Throughout my time at PEN Belarus, which I joined in 2020, I came to see how the state affected our culture, language, and especially our literature. Our organisation has supported Belarusian authors with festivals and literary prizes for years, but being ostracised by the state, we were pushed into creating our own kind of “literary ghetto”.

In autumn 2021, I chose to leave Belarus, and came to the UK on the Chevening scholarship, where English PEN welcomed me into its at-risk community. It also invited me to become an honorary member of the Library and it’s been a privilege to be welcomed into this community, too. I am a frequent borrower, an opportunity I treasure. So far, A Child of the Jago by Arthur Morrison (Fiction) and Bad Girls: A History of Rebels and Renegades , by Caitlin Davies (S. Prisons), have been particular favourites.

I have worked as a poet, translator and writer, and my next project is an illustrated book based on the

Neighbourhoods movement in Belarus, which was a very important part of the pro-democracy people’s movement protesting dictator Alexander Lukashenko’s regime. I have already interviewed activists from Minsk, and am seeking inspiration on the best way to present the story in a touching and simple way. The Library’s children’s collection has been very helpful.

At the moment, it’s not safe to return to Belarus. So, I am staying in the UK and studying for a PhD in supporting Belarusian women to share experiences of gender-based violence and patriarchy using poetry in an autoethnographic approach. I hope through this to further promote Belarusian literature. My involvement with PEN has helped me to see that you can work to change the world around you through writing and reading. •

As told to Elaine Stabler

Frances Clack

Photo: