LIBRARIES are under threat again. In this time of recession and financial hardship, one easy way of saving money is to rip literature from the heart of the community.
And let us not undersell libraries. Thomas Carlyle said, "The true university these days is a collection of books." Cicero proclaimed, "To add a library to a house is to give that house a soul."
And Lady Bird Johnson said, "Perhaps no place in any community is so totally democratic as the town library. The only entrance requirement is interest."
We didn’t have books in our house. Nothing beyond Beano and Dandy annuals. I got my literature from those post-Second World War comics Wizard, Hotspur, Adventure and Rover.
They had a comic strip on the front but the stories and serials inside were mostly tight packed narrative. Jingoistic yarns of war, science fiction, tales of the Wild West and unlikely heroes such as Wilson the Wonder Athlete, Alf Tupper and the Wolf of Kabul.
They were not particularly well written but they fed a need for adventure in an age before every home had a television. Shock, horror, younger people may cry! A world without a gogglebox?
No Coronation Street and EastEnders, no Morecambe and Wise, Faulty Towers or Doctor Who. Worse – no Amy Pond.
No home entertainment, at all, except tuning in the wireless to listen to Billy Cotton’s Bandshow.
Thank goodness I discovered the public library.
I was 12 and had just been to the dentist and my mother thought I needed cheering up. The branch library in Timperley was a few doors from the dental surgery, in a big old house surrounded by a wild garden.
Once inside I was shown the children’s section and told to choose.
"You mean I can borrow one?"
"You can borrow more than one."
"And not just when I've been to the dentist?"
"Any time."
What an absolutely brilliant concept. A huge room full of books – proper books, not comics – and I could borrow them whenever I wanted.
That was it. I was hooked. I have been a reader ever since.
Today’s youngsters have other entertainments competing for their attention. Video games, Blueray movies, computers and widescreen TVs showing Amy Pond.
And yes, a book is more challenging, because you have to make an effort. But, once you have slipped inside its pages, there is nothing quite like letting yourself become lost in its grip. All adventures and emotions are possible.
The world becomes a much more fascinating place.
All knowledge is there – for anyone to access.
This is why books and libraries are worth saving. Libraries can be the souls of communities, and yet they are easy targets when Government, national and local, has to make financial cuts.
As many as 800 local libraries could be under threat in the UK in the coming weeks and months.
Let’s hope they survive. They hold our heritage and our dreams.
