‘They’re essential’ - Writers offer words of support
Published: 10 February, 2011
Esther Freud: “It is heartbreaking to think that libraries are under threat. When my children were small our visit to the wonderful Keats library was something we all looked forward to and the huge bag of books we brought away with us fuelled their love of books, stories, learning in general.”
Alan Bennett: “Closing down libraries is child abuse.”
Dame Margaret Drabble and Sir Michael Holroyd: “You have won before in the fight against library closures and we know you can win again. We all need libraries, because they are a public good, available to all of us, and we (personally) owe them more than we can say.”
Martin Amis: “Libraries are not a luxury, they are essential to civilisation.”
Helen Dunmore: “They are foundation stones of education, culture, and community. They are part of a heritage which it is our responsibility to pass on to succeeding generations. I hope there will always be teenagers doing homework in a warm, safe, public library.”
Dannie Abse: “The ghost of Hitler rejoices, for closing down libraries is only a genteel way of burning books.”
Howard Jacobson:“Borges said that he always imagined Paradise would be a kind of library. So how do we imagine a country in which there are no libraries? As a kind of hell.”
Julian Barnes: “Like most writers, I had a childhood full of weekly book borrowing, and know the value of libraries is out of all proportion to their cost.”