Feature: Caitlin Davies - ‘Closing libraries is a criminal attack on our links to the past’
Published: 30 June, 2011
Writer Caitlin Davies has expressed her concerns about government cuts to the arts and the closure of libraries by local authorities – the more so since she received Arts Council and Society of Authors funding to write her new novel.
“I’m incredibly grateful to have got the funding,” she says. “It’s not just the money, though that is very important, but it’s the feeling that someone believes in the idea you have for a book – it’s a big psychological boost.
“Funds like these are a real lifeline and now it’s more competitive than ever. And as for government cuts, it’s criminal to be closing libraries,shortening hours, cutting back services.
“This is not just a blow to those who want free access to books, magazines and the Internet, but to everyone who wants to research family and local history.
“Libraries are an essential link to every community’s past.
“My local library at Manor Gardens was the starting point for The Ghost of Lily Painter. It was where I went to try and build up a picture of life in Edwardian times, followed by the local history centre at Finsbury Park library, where I could study electoral roles, old newspapers, workhouse records, maps and photographs, and then Colindale Newspaper Library.
“Every day I met people searching for something from the past, trying to track down missing family members, very often ‘illegitimate’, or researching bomb damage from World War Two for a school project.
“Where will we go then when we want a warm place to sit, when it’s lashing with rain outside, and when we want to immerse ourselves in another life? Once the libraries have gone, so too will our past.”