Is there anybody going to listen to my story...

"Saturday is National Libraries Day [in the UK], a time when libraries will be celebrated up and down the country. But the mood in the north of England will be sombre, as Liverpool becomes the latest council to announce swinging cuts to its library service.

     With Newcastle already planning to close 10 of its 18 libraries, and the axe hanging over 14 of Sheffield's 27 community libraries, it emerged this week that Liverpool city council may have to close 10 out of 19 libraries. 'Liverpool, Newcastle and Sheffield seem to be the worst hit – all big inner city authorities with historic problems, and in the north as well, which does appear to be receiving disproportionate cuts,' said the award-winning Cheshire author and library campaigner Alan Gibbons, who was set to appear at an event in Newcastle to celebrate libraries and protest their closure with campaigners and other authors.
     Gibbons blamed the government's 'flawed and failing "austerity" programme' for putting 'local councils in a difficult position,' but also called on Liverpool city council 'not to become a placid conduit implementing the coalition government's drastic cuts.'
     'Communities need their libraries. Reading is the hallmark of a civilised society,' he said. 'Authors and library users will stand alongside their elected representatives in protesting against government cutbacks. We cannot support a council implementing such cuts in a way that will damage the educational, social and cultural opportunities of the people it represents.'"
— Alison Flood, The Guardian
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Buy books by award-winning young adult fiction author Alan Gibbons here...

Recovered and Uncovered

From: RareList Rare Books

"From the famous theft of Ernest Hemingway’s novels to the loss of William Faulkner’s novel four times, manuscripts have had a way of getting lost. It is no less than a eureka moment when they’re found many years later.
     This year has been quite eventful in terms of discovering lost literary treasures. Here’s a look at the famous manuscripts which were found in 2011."
— Hindustan Times
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"An unpublished and previously unknown Enid Blyton novel is believed to have turned up in an archive of the late children's author's work.
Mr Tumpy's Caravan is a 180-page fantasy story about a magical caravan.
It was in a collection of manuscripts that was auctioned by the family of Blyton's eldest daughter in September.
     'I think it's unique,' said Tony Summerfield, head of the Enid Blyton Society. 'I don't know of any full-length unpublished Blyton work.'
     The collection was bought by the Seven Stories children's book centre in Newcastle.
Blyton, who died in 1968, remains a children's favourite and a publishing phenomenon thanks to such characters as the Famous Five, the Secret Seven and Noddy.
An estimated 500 million copies of her books have been sold around the world, with updated and reprinted versions of her most popular stories still selling eight million copies a year."
— Ian Youngs, BBC
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"It's quite surreal," says Hannah Green, archivist at the Seven Stories centre for children's books in Newcastle and one of the few to have read the story in recent years. "It's about a caravan on legs which gets up and walks around," she continues.
     In the caravan with Mr Tumpy are his two friends, Muffin and Puffin, and a dog called Bun-Dorg.
"They live in this caravan and go off on adventures," she explains. "They don't really control it - it decides where it's going to go and when it's going to stay somewhere."
— Hannah Green, in an interview with Ian Youngs (BBC)
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"In 2008, Enid Blyton was voted the UK's best loved writer, beating JK Rowling, Austen and even Shakespeare. Yet, although characters like Noddy and the Famous Five still have devoted fans, Blyton has become a controversial figure, dogged by criticisms of her writing style and accusations of sexism and racism."
— BBC Archive
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