An English Library Journey

John Bevis

‘A hymn of praise. Absolutely exquisite’ Ian McMillan

John Bevis is a writer and book-lover on an eccentric quest: to obtain a membership card from every library authority in England.

In a ten-year mission criss-crossing the country – from Solihull to Slough, from Cleveland to Cornwall – he enrols at libraries of all shapes and sizes: monuments to Art Deco or Brutalism; a converted corset factory; one even shaped like a pork pie.

With the architectural eye of Pevsner and the eavesdropping ear of Bill Bryson, he engages us at every step with anecdotes and aperçus about the role of the public library in our national life, while ruing its decline in the age of austerity.

As interested in the people he finds as he is in the buildings and their history, he is a humane, witty and erudite guide. The result is a book to be treasured by anyone who has ever used a library.

‘A hymn of praise to that everyday outpost of civilisation and culture, the library. Read it and fall back in love with those palaces of delight that should, and maybe one day will, grace every street corner and village centre again. Let those who dared to close libraries read this love letter and hang their heads in shame’ Ian McMillan

‘Following in the tyre tracks of the inter-war travel writer H.V. Morton, Bevis stitches overheard conversations about good lagers, unreliable printers and Only Fools and Horses into a state-of-the-nation collage. An eccentric homage and passionate clarion call’ TLS

‘A highly readable quixotic adventure’ New Statesman

‘An eloquent gazetteer of contemporary intellectual and political failure. Essential reading’ Ken Worpole

Hardback: 272pp

Published: Eye (March 2022)

ISBN: 9781785633089