by Amy Sumner | Saturday, 25th January 2020
2019 saw a record number of visitors welcomed to Gladstone’s Library. Over 13, 000 visitors came through the doors over the last 12 months to visit the Reading Rooms of north Wales' literary gem.
by Amy Sumner | Friday, 13th December 2019
Before the reign of Queen Victoria no one in Britain celebrated Christmas in the way we do today. There were no Christmas crackers, no one had heard of Santa Claus and no Christmas cards were sent. During the reign of Victoria, from 1837 onwards, the wealth of printing inventions and technologies of the industrial revolution meant that the face of Christmas changed forever.
by Amy Sumner | Tuesday, 10th December 2019
Early sepia-drenched photographs of Gladstone’s Library I have seen are curious. They are strange portals into a familiar but unfamiliar world. They can also be a bit like dusty moths, lifeless and flattened in the pages of history. I wanted to (amateurly) try and put a bit of colour in one.
by Amy Sumner | Friday, 29th November 2019
We have taken the decision that from January 2020, the size, type and number of bags which users can be bring into the Reading Rooms will be limited. Anyone working in the galleries will be limited to one laptop bag and one small rucksack or shoulderbag.
by Amy Sumner | Friday, 22nd November 2019
John Moorman (1905 - 1989), Bishop of Ripon, was a leading authority on St Francis of Assisi and the history of the Franciscan Order. After his ordination in 1929, he was curate of Holbeck in Leeds before being appointed rector of Fallowfield in Manchester. During the Second World War, staying true to his pacifist beliefs, he worked as a farmhand in Wharfedale quite literally digging for victory.
by Amy Sumner | Wednesday, 20th November 2019
We are delighted to announce the lineup for our 2020 Hearth festival which takes place on Saturday, 1st February in the cosy common room of our residential library. This intimate literary festival offers keen writers the opportunity to pick up hints and tips, and ask questions of published authors about their experiences. It also encourages anyone interested in the world of books to find out more about the writing and publishing process.
by Amy Sumner | Friday, 08th November 2019
A couple of nights ago, at my Q&A event at the Library, an audience member asked a question along the lines of: If I cared about climate change, why wasn’t I writing political slogans instead of poems? A good question in these times of heightened worry for our world and our environment, and one that I answered briefly at the time, but which I think is very important to address more fully too.
by Amy Sumner | Friday, 08th November 2019
William Gladstone (who lived until he was 88) read 22,000 books in his life. They like telling people this fact when they arrive at the Library, I suppose, because they like to see how their faces contort as they try to do the maths. Let me save you the trouble – it works out at around a book a day, for most of his adult life.