Tales of Wonder and timeless tales of horror...

18 October 2018

Tales of Wonder and timeless tales of horror...

The month of Halloween is in full flow; the nights draw closer, the mornings mistier, and that black cat at the end of the street grows ever more ominous each time you pass. So, as every fancy dress lover’s favourite day of the year looms over us like a pumpkin-shaped apparition, there has never been a more appropriate time to look into the spookier side of our collections here at Gladstone’s Library…

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Edrychiad i fewn yr gasgliad Cymraeg / Looking into our Welsh collection

25 September 2018

Edrychiad i fewn yr gasgliad Cymraeg / Looking into our Welsh collection

Although not Welsh himself, in 1894 William Ewart Gladstone decided to found his library across the Welsh border for good reason. The beautiful, remote countryside of Hawarden village, as well as nearby historic areas such as Ruthin and Mold, are steeped in culture and Welsh heritage. With an abundance of hills, forests and, of course, castles, as well as the mountain range of Snowdonia, Gladstone envisaged that rather than the congested streets of London, Liverpool or Manchester, North Wales would serve as the perfectly serene backdrop for his incredible legacy as well as provide the necessary air of tranquillity for study and contemplation.

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Christmas reading recommends from the Gladstone's Library team!

15 December 2017

Christmas reading recommends from the Gladstone's Library team!

Gifting the perfect book to a person is one of the great joys of life; creating a perfect partnership which you can just feel in your bones will last.

With that in mind and as a little Christmas treat, the Gladstone’s Library team have gathered together some of our books of the year and reading recommends perfect for stockings. If you are still looking for that perfect gift for someone special, we hope you can find inspiration within this guide! 

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Class mark K

19 October 2017

Class mark K

I know what you’re thinking, the title ‘Class mark K’ is pretty vague, but I just didn’t know how else to describe this magical corner of the Annex, where I lost a good hour of my day because of the sheer number of books that I just wanted to delve into...

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Democracy by James Kirchick

7 August 2017

Democracy by James Kirchick

Staring at me from the desk in my bedroom at Gladstone’s Library during my recent residency was a postcard inscribed with a bit of the namesake’s wisdom: 

Liberalism is trust of the people tempered by prudence. Conservatism is distrust of the people tempered by fear. 

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Things I learned while not editing my novel by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan

7 August 2017

Things I learned while not editing my novel by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan

I met my first Wikipedia surfer, almost 10 years ago. It was my first year at university. The polo-shirted boy explained that he spent hours clicking link after link. It wasted days of his life, he said and smiled. Back in my dorm, tucked into my duvet, I settled in with Wikipedia. I clicked a link. I read for a while, and then stopped. The site seemed useful, but I wasn’t entranced by the hyperlink pathway.

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The Treasures of Closed Access: Samuel Wesley’s Life of Christ

27 February 2017

The Treasures of Closed Access: Samuel Wesley’s Life of Christ

The Closed Access section of the Reading Rooms contains some of the Library’s oldest and rarest literary works and collections. It includes about 15 Incunabula, texts printed between 1450 and 1501, as well as a collection of books once owned by the Glynne family, of whom Catherine, William Gladstone’s wife, was a member.

One of the books housed in Closed Access is Samuel Wesley’s The Life of our blessed Lord & Saviour. An Heroic Poem.

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Thomas Pennant: Welsh Naturalist, Explorer, another man before his time!

7 October 2016

Thomas Pennant: Welsh Naturalist, Explorer, another man before his time!

Our founder, William Ewart Gladstone, was not the only famous figure connected to Flintshire. Thomas Pennant, a famous polymath, naturalist and traveller of the Eighteenth Century, was born and lived in Flintshire.

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A book list with a difference

17 July 2016

A book list with a difference

‘Books are a delightful society. If you go into a room filled with books, even without taking them down from their shelves they seem to speak to you, to welcome you.’

With the wisdom of William Gladstone ringing in our ears, we asked the ‘delightful society’ of Gladstone’s Library staff to tell us about a book that they love.

A book-list with a difference.

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Entertaining Judgment: An interview with Greg Garrett

15 July 2016

Entertaining Judgment: An interview with Greg Garrett

On 22nd -24th July, author and Professor at Baylor University Texas, Greg Garrett leads a course at Gladstone’s Library exploring depictions of the afterlife in contemporary film, music and literature. The course is entitled Entertaining Judgment: The Afterlife in Popular Imagination and follows Greg’s book of the same name…

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