The pages of history
SHHHH ... reading quietly in the 1930s.
THE sense of relief was overwhelming, I remember. I had misplaced my copy of Le Grand Meaulnes, Alain-Fournier’s classic novel of youthful rite of passage.
It was unusual in being a paperback: most of the French books at the Girls’ Grammar School in Shields seemed to be old, hard backed and inscribed with the names of pre-First World War pupils of the by-then defunct Westoe Central School, from where they’d come.
In terror of the wrath of Mrs Parker – unhappily, for me, probably the school’s most exacting French mistress – I fled to the library in Ocean Road, hoping against hope to find a copy that would see me through my difficulty.
In those days, foreign language texts were kept in the non-fiction section of the library, a place of dark polished wood, ornate cornices and strictly imposed silence.
The library had always been my bulwark. From its shelves over the years had come – for free, something I can still never quite believe – so many entrancing companions: as a child, Swallows, Amazons, The Famous Five and The Borrowers.
Later there would be Gerald Durrell’s family and other animals; and later again, the witty and educative sexuality of Brigid Brophy and Edna O’ Brien.
The discovery of Michael Moorcock and Ray Bradbury seeded a lifelong affection for science-fiction.
I borrowed The Only Child, South Shields-born poet James Kirkup’s memories of his youth, and fell in love with biography.
So would my friend fail me now? It didn’t. There was – gasp – a copy, and so I was able to escape Mrs P’s displeasure until the errant volume turned up – from where, I can’t now remember. I still have it.
And so it went on: Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct novels, that helped see me through a very dark time; books of the sea – CS Forester, and Douglas Reeman and his alter ego Alexander Kent; Thomas Hardy’s ouevre; Sholokhov’s And Quiet Flows The Don, and – seminal to an abiding interest in the First World War – All Quiet On The Western Front.
Today, books have never been cheaper; even current best-sellers can turn up within weeks on the shelves of charity shops. Online book-buying sites are readily accessible and frighteningly efficient.
So it’s easy to see why, in certain parts of the country, libraries have been first in line for cuts, despite the fact that they are important social and community hubs.
For me, though, nothing will still ever come close to the sense of anticipation a visit to the library brings.
In fact browsing Le Grand Meaulnes again, still with my pencilled annotations on its pages, I believe I have a fancy for a bit of Georges Simenon ... !
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Thursday 17 May 2012
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