In praise of libraries

I live in a house full of books – so many you can hardly get through the front door – but I still love going to the library. There’s something about its peaceful atmosphere, its orderliness, and all those thousands of books waiting to be discovered, which thrills me every time.

As kids, a trip to the public library was a weekly ritual. My mother would take out three books for herself, and three more for my father. After a few years they’d read their way through the fiction shelves and the family jumped ship to Boots, which at that time operated a nationwide lending library network, as well as its pharmacy business.

One day my mother was informed by the librarian she couldn’t take out a particular book.

‘Why not?’ she asked, surprised.

‘I’m afraid you’re not old enough,’ came the reply.

Whether the librarian’s eyesight was faulty, or this was intended as a compliment, my mother couldn’t stop smiling for a week.

As well as Exeter Central Library, a vast affair on several levels, with stacks in the basement, we’re lucky enough to have a community library just down the road. It’s based in our parish church – St Michael’s and All Angels, pictured above – and is known as Heavitree Friendly Library ‘because it’s impossible to come in and not have someone speak to you’.

Anne Byrne, one of the founders, explains it was created ten years ago ‘to do something practical for the local community’ and it now offers well over 2000 books, lent free of charge to members (and no fines if you return them late). Thanks to profits from tea and cakes, and council grants, the shelves are constantly refreshed with new titles, favourite genres being crime and historical.

I ask Anne what books are most popular. ‘Mike Hollow’s Blitz detective, Jane Casey’s Kerrigan series and Julia Chapman’s Dales series,’ she tells me, without hesitation. ‘For historical fiction, S G Maclean’s Seeker series.’ Browsing the shelves, I find the selection broad and bang up to date, including the latest offerings from Kate Ellis, Elly Griffiths and Mari Hannah. The library is open on the first and third Friday morning of every month (this month only 17 April, because of Easter).

Like all authors, I should perhaps declare an interest. Thanks to the Public Lending Rights scheme, every time a book is borrowed from a public library, the writer receives a small fee - currently 12.4 pence - paid by the government. It may not sound much but it arrives once a year as a pleasant surprise.

While in nostalgic mood, does anyone remember – or still have – a mobile library? I remember them from my childhood – clambering aboard, the mingled smell of books and diesel – but the service was discontinued in Devon two years ago. Perhaps that’s why places like Heavitree Friendly Library matter all the more: still quietly keeping the habit of reading alive.