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The latest news and views from Gladstone's Library.

A book list with a difference

by Gladstones Library | Sunday, 17th July 2016

‘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.


Work Experience in Marketing - Niamh Yale-Helms

by Gladstones Library | Friday, 15th July 2016

I am a sixth form student from Hawarden High School studying Mathematics, History, English Language and Media Studies. After having started my year 12 syllabus in History studying British Prime Ministers and already gaining a strong interest in William Gladstone and his work, I immediately thought of Gladstone’s Library as an apt location for work experience as it's just a few minutes down the road from where I live and has an abundance of literary works which link into the British Parliamentary Reform I have been studying.


Entertaining Judgment: An interview with Greg Garrett

by Gladstones Library | Friday, 15th July 2016

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...


Winner of the New Welsh Writing Awards 2016 announced!

by Gladstones Library | Friday, 08th July 2016

New Welsh Review has this week announced the winner of its New Welsh Writing Awards 2016: University of South Wales Prize for Travel Writing. The Prize celebrates the best short form travel writing from emerging and established writers based in the UK and Ireland; its judges New Welsh Review editor Gwen Davies and award-winning travel writer Rory MacLean.


Summer 2016 at Gladstone’s Library

by Hayley Butler | Thursday, 07th July 2016

Sunshine or no sunshine, the Library is the place to be!

OK, so the heatwave we’d hoped for has not materialised quite yet but every so often those rays do break through, bathing the ground in a glorious sunlight, and July is looking promising!

Here at the Library we have events and activities for all weathers…


Reading List: Politics of the Mid-Tudor Crisis

by Gladstones Library | Friday, 01st July 2016

A Reading List for Gladstone’s Library.

Bloody Mary, The Life of Mary Tudor - Carolly Erickson (1996)

This biography contains information not only on the early life and the short but ruthless reign of Mary I, but the political manoeuvring which took place after the death of Edward V on 16th July 1553, when, on his deathbed, he named Lady Jane Grey as his successor, despite his father’s Third Act of Succession. This left both of Henry VIII’s daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, without a legal claim.

The book details how Mary then raised an army to take the throne for herself and the turning of the Council of Lords on Jane and John Dudley.

*Available in Gladstone's Library at shelfmark M 27 M1 / 12


Reading List: European dictators of the 20th century

by Gladstones Library | Friday, 01st July 2016

A ‘dictator’ is defined as ‘a person exercising absolute power, especially a ruler who has absolute, unrestricted control in a government without hereditary succession’ (www.dictionary.com).

During the 20th century, Europe experienced some of the most manipulative and cunning dictators in history, including Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin. Below are a series of reading lists relating to this topic, to some of the most brutal dictators Europe has known.