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Category: blog

Knuckling Down: Editing with Sarah Smith

by Rhian Waller | Tuesday, 15th October 2024

That’s how I came to bite the bullet and restructure my novel during my residency at Gladstone’s and I couldn’t have found a better place to do it. The calm of the Reading Rooms, full of other people quietly beavering away, was the change of scene I needed - Sarah Smith

Meet the Neighbours - a blog by author Sarah Smith

by Rhian Waller | Monday, 02nd September 2024

"When I visit a new place, I often gravitate towards the local churchyard. It helps me get my bearings, and it’s an obvious choice for someone who writes historical fiction. All the memorials inscribed with dates and places and the graves of people who lived and died here. It’s a good place to start to understand the history of a place."

Gladstone’s Doctors

by Rhian Waller | Monday, 19th August 2024

If one walks past the statue towards Gladstone’s Library, one may observe four other sculptures placed in niches around its frontage. These commemorate Gladstone’s four ‘doctors’ - the writers he singled out as the intellectual mentors who guided his thought throughout his life.

An article by Jonathan Hopson

Finding Your Author Voice - an interview with author Sarah Smith

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 28th June 2024

"I’ve always written. I loved English at school, read widely and I went to University to study English in the mid-1980s. I originally trained as an English teacher but through a series of life events I fell into working for a range of projects which were all about supporting Disabled people moving into education and employment." - author Sarah Smith (Hear No Evil) on finding her authorial voice.

#Engage with Gladstone's Library

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 20th June 2024

Our Engagement and Learning Officers have been in post for a little less than a month and they are already hard at work. Now the dust has settled following their arrival, we thought it was time to catch up with them about their project.

Studying the True Path at Gladstone's Library

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 17th May 2024

"The service that Gladstone’s Library offers to seekers of knowledge puts it in the legacy of the Bayt al-Hikmah and other similar illustrious spaces of learning that existed throughout history." - Imran Visram, recipient of the Vera Stantan Scholarship

Exploring Women, Madness, and Disability in the Library and Archives

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 25th April 2024

"I felt extremely lucky to receive this scholarship because I knew my research would be greatly enhanced by the huge and varied array of resources on offer at the Library, but I was also really looking forward to having an idyllic workspace to study away from all of life’s distractions!" - Hannah Helm

History: What it is and isn’t - Dan Kaszeta in the History Room

by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 20th March 2024

History: What it is and isn’t

An article by Dan Kazseta, Writer in Residence in February and March 2024 and author of Toxic.

"History is not simply chronology and stenography, although those are basic building blocks. The uninitiated claim that “you can’t rewrite history” but that is literally not true. History is more than chronology, but even sometimes the chronology is wrong and has to get updated. History is also more than single-perspective accounts..."

Getting to Know Our Guests

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 15th March 2024

The puzzle is progressing, though Dan describes the Demotic section as ‘tetchy’.

The Ambassador and the Guardian Angel

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 23rd November 2023

I said hello to Lilly the dog, whose eyes closed in contentment as I gave her sweet face a pet. “It’s so nice to see you again,” I said, and I meant it.

Author N West Moss offers a slice of Hawarden life, after spending a month in the community

The Book that Wasn't Written by a Writer

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 10th November 2023

Peter Stanley is 90 years old, lives in Boughton, Chester, and is adamant that he is not a writer. Despite that, he has written and self-published a book, KISS: A Meditation on the Art of Wellbeing by Keeping It Simple, a part memoir, part self-help book based on his own life.

Escaping the pitfalls of 3pm...

by Rhian Waller | Monday, 23rd October 2023

"These hours alone, stretched and prepared by all that came before them, seem limber enough to hold new words. At the end of a good day, duration disappears."

by Jude Piesse

Vaulted Ceilings and Well-Stocked Stacks

by Rhian Waller | Monday, 11th September 2023

It turns out the ideal, for me at least, isn’t a room of one’s own: it’s a room of one’s own in a residential library and also a desk in said library’s nineteenth-century reading room. A blog by writer Laura Evans

An alcove of your own with Margarita Gokun Silver

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 02nd June 2023

"I came to Gladstone’s Library to finish the first draft of a play (hence the obsessive play reading), and by the end of my stay, I had all ninety-eight pages of it written, typed, and sent out for an initial read to those of my writer friends who don't mind an occasional typo. I have never in my life been this productive."

Gladstone, Geology, and Genesis in the 1880s

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 02nd March 2023

'William Ewart Gladstone, not known for a conspicuous interest in geology, nonetheless starred in one of the period’s last prominent squabbles over the scientific accuracy of the Book of Genesis'.

A blog post by archives researcher Dr Richard Fallon (Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow, University of Birmingham) 

A View from the Audience

by Rhian Waller | Monday, 13th February 2023

Welcome to Gladstone’s Library – a haven of respite in a busy life. Train to Chester, bus to Hawarden, such a warm greeting at the door. By Jill Courtnell 

Lighting the fire

by Rhian Waller | Monday, 16th January 2023

"Around me scurry other writers, presumably of every discipline, each entirely wrapped in our own private creative fury. Table lamps illuminate every desk, so each warm glow seems to hold a discrete weather system of intense concentration."

A blog by Writer in Residence Sophie Rickard

Christmas Letter From the Warden

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 16th December 2022

The Christmas Newsletter this year is a chance for me to say thank you to you all for your support and commitment to the Library.

Ancient English Christmas Carols

by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 07th December 2022

In this blog we’d like to highlight an item and writer from the collection, Ancient English Christmas carols, 1400-1700, collected by Edith Rickert

(by James, Reading Room Assistant)

Being Together Alone - by author Guy Stagg

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 02nd December 2022

I knew from the start where I wanted to sit...  So, each day I made sure I was the first person to arrive, occupying the spot before anyone else could claim it.

Dyslexia Awareness Week 2022 Part Two - Using the Reading Rooms

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 06th October 2022

British Dyslexia Association Dyslexia Week 2022 is this week! It runs until Sunday 9th October, with the theme of 'Breaking Through Barriers'. 

Using the Reading Rooms if you have Dyslexia. Part two of a two-part series by James. 

Dyslexia Awareness Week 2022 Part 1 - Working With Dyslexia

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 06th October 2022

British Dyslexia Association Dyslexia Week 2022 is this week! It runs until Sunday 9th October, with the theme of 'Breaking Through Barriers'. 

Having dyslexia and working in a library could seem a bit of a contradiction - after all, one of the best-known symptoms of dyslexia is a difficulty with spelling, reading, and writing. However, Reading Room Assistant James has other opinions...

Part one of a two-part series by James. 

(Re)introducing the Inklings

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 05th August 2022

Reading Room Assistant Louise Roberts has uncovered documents that offer a fascinating insight into the broader circle around the Inklings and events at Gladstone's Library...

The Ladies of Llangollen

by Rhian Waller | Tuesday, 28th June 2022

For this Pride Month's blog we'd like to highlight something from the archive; a letter from Lady Eleanor Butler and Miss Sarah Ponsonby, otherwise known as the Ladies of Llangollen. 

A Room of One's Own by Sarah Watling

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 09th June 2022

"At Gladstone’s, I don’t waste so much time working my way back into the world I left at my desk the last time I was there. To paraphrase ee cummings, here I can carry my book with me. I carry it in my head. I am never without it."

A Glance At the Letters of Lady Mary Glynne

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 26th May 2022

Gladstone’s Library holds a valuable collection of letters written to Lady Glynne after 1800 that I had the privilege of viewing whilst researching a society that met in Chester in this period [1]. The picture that emerged, brief highlights of which are set out here, made it more than worth the while.  

Beautiful, Borgesian, Benign - a Blog by Writer in Residence Glen James Brown

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 28th April 2022

I like the idea of the library as a sentient thing—something that can see inside into our skulls as we struggle with plot knots, school revision, whatever project we are bending our passions towards. And then it shifts itself about—subtly, it has over a century of practice—so the next time we glance at a certain shelf, the answers to our problems are right there, spine out.

Mothers in the Archive

by Rhian Waller | Monday, 28th March 2022

I began to reflect on women’s experiences of maternity two hundred years ago: a time when maternal and infant mortality were far higher than today, when women had limited control over how many children they bore, and when difficult births were typically endured with little or no pain relief.

Cataloguing the Anne Ramsden Bennett Archive

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 25th March 2022

The Anne Ramsden Bennett Archive is the first collection that I have catalogued. It has given me the unique opportunity to learn about cataloguing, and to learn more about the role of women in the publishing industry in the nineteenth century.

Caoilinn Hughes on deadlines and serendipity

by Rhian Waller | Monday, 14th March 2022

"Half-way through my two-week stay at Gladstone’s Library, I felt the need to close my laptop and notebook and to spend a day reading. To anyone who knew what I had to achieve in the following week, taking time away from Microsoft Word would have seemed reckless, if not irresponsible!"

Journeys and memories with Timmy Mallett

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 24th February 2022

Timmy Mallett comes to Gladstone's Library on Saturday 26th February to talk about his autobiography, Utterly Brilliant - My Life's Journey. This is not his first visit, nor is he the first in his family to forge a connection with the Library. Here, the artist and author reflects on his deep links with the institution, and on the long journey that brought him back.

A view from a volunteer at Gladstone's Library

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 20th January 2022

"As well as the history of the place, and the variety of voluntary projects that Gladstone’s Library has, the Library boasts some fabulous late Victorian era neo-gothic architecture. A building of monumental proportions, exquisitely opulent, it is well worth every single brick that went into building the place."

Book Recommendations from Alibis in the Archive 2021

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 22nd October 2021

If you're looking to crack open a new crime novel, we have you covered. Alibis in the Archive, the festival of crime fiction, took place this month. In response to audience requests, several of the speakers nominated their recommended reads. Among them are somewhat neglected treasures, key works in the genre and unsung authors. 

A Christmas Message from Gladstone's Library

by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 27th January 2021

Dear Friends,

I am writing this sitting alone in Gladstone’s Library pondering this fading year and wondering what the next year will bring. Will the vaccine give us hope of a return to normality? 

On Running and Writing by Charlotte Higgins

by Rhian Waller | Sunday, 05th April 2020

I have an antagonistic relationship with “writing tips” – the ones you find on literary blogs or on Twitter or in newspapers (including, on occasion, the one for which I work, the Guardian).

From the Archives...do you still send Christmas cards?

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 13th December 2019

Before the reign of Queen Victoria no one in Britain celebrated Christmas in the way we do today. There were no Christmas crackers, no one had heard of Santa Claus and no Christmas cards were sent. During the reign of Victoria, from 1837 onwards, the wealth of printing inventions and technologies of the industrial revolution meant that the face of Christmas changed forever.

Remembering John Moorman

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 22nd November 2019

John Moorman (1905 - 1989), Bishop of Ripon, was a leading authority on St Francis of Assisi and the history of the Franciscan Order. After his ordination in 1929, he was curate of Holbeck in Leeds before being appointed rector of Fallowfield in Manchester. During the Second World War, staying true to his pacifist beliefs, he worked as a farmhand in Wharfedale quite literally digging for victory. 

Learning from failure by Emily Morris

by Rhian Waller | Sunday, 20th October 2019

Back on a sweltering day in August, I was cycling along the Welsh Road when I heard a thud and a dull skid. I stopped, turned around and saw that one of my overstuffed panniers had fallen off the back of my bike and bounced into the gutter. I wondered if I could hail a black cab, but I wasn't in Manchester anymore.

Self care for writers by Suzannah Evans

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 17th October 2019

It is undeniably brilliant to be a Poet in Residence here. Every day I get up and eat breakfast that someone else has cooked, leave the dishes and scuttle off to write in one of the most beautiful, wooden beamed, book-scented libraries I have ever been in. After lunch I take a walk around the village in one direction or another, and then come back to write more or read until dinner time.

My bleeding art by Suzannah Evans

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 11th October 2019

A couple of nights ago, at my Q&A event at the Library, an audience member asked a question along the lines of: If I cared about climate change, why wasn’t I writing political slogans instead of poems? A good question in these times of heightened worry for our world and our environment, and one that I answered briefly at the time, but which I think is very important to address more fully too. 

Digital relationships

by Rhian Waller | Tuesday, 08th October 2019

Every few years, there is a gathering of a unique set of clans. In the UK, they are called ‘independent libraries’, while in the US they are ‘member libraries’; in Australia, they are ‘mechanics institutes’. All are libraries that make their own way in the world, with small budgets and even smaller staff numbers.

How to read 22,000 books by Amber Massie-Blomfield

by Rhian Waller | Sunday, 01st September 2019

William Gladstone (who lived until he was 88) read 22,000 books in his life. They like telling people this fact when they arrive at the Library, I suppose, because they like to see how their faces contort as they try to do the maths. Let me save you the trouble – it works out at around a book a day, for most of his adult life. 

The great book exchange

by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 28th August 2019

Perhaps you have encountered ‘lending libraries’ in the far corners of the Hebrides or on the bays of Cornwall. These could take the guise of a box perched on somebody’s wall, a wheelbarrow sprouting copies of childhood classics or those big red boxes with well-worn coin inlets, repurposed for reading and the exchange of ideas.

The importance of collecting

by Rhian Waller | Monday, 29th July 2019

In an age of single use and throw-away products, we can often find ourselves yearning for something with a sense of permanence. No sooner have we bought the newest, shiniest iPhone than Apple releases the newer, shinier version, rendering our new phone a technologically competent, but intrinsically second-best space-filler. The same is true of cars, of clothes, of practically everything manufactured these days. The only thing that seems not to fit this mould? Books.

A summer reading list

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 26th July 2019

C.S. Lewis once said ‘You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.’ This is a maxim which suits our Library team very well indeed; there never seems to be enough tea, and in spite of working in a library with over 150,000 books and printed items, we seem to race through good books all too quickly!

Fragmentary manuscripts

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 19th July 2019

We are very lucky here at Gladstone’s Library to have access to around 130,000 printed items in total, including around 6,500 books printed before 1800 and some as early as the 15th Century. The majority of these older books come from a very small proportion of our collections: either our pre-18th Century collection, the Bishop Moorman Franciscan collection, or the Glynne-Gladstone collection. Many of these older books are kept in our Closed Access rooms in order to keep them in the best condition possible – but as a result, regular visitors to the library might not be aware of what treasures lie behind closed doors!

Gladstone’s Library as a flexible space

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 28th June 2019

We can be quite traditional here at Gladstone’s Library: the Reading Rooms are silent study areas; we don’t allow food near the books; and ‘No, we won’t let you take that rare and precious Gladstone Foundation Collection book home with you tonight, Sir - we are not a lending library!’ In other ways though, we like to think of ourselves as quite innovative.

300 years of Welsh history: 1719, 1819 & 1919

by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 19th June 2019

Wales is a small country with a big presence. Integral to the history of the British Isles and attracting tourists from all around the world, it should be hard to overlook the history of Cymru, however it is often wholly conflated with that of neighbouring England to its disservice. Gladstone’s Library is an international institution, but we are very proud of our Welsh location that was decided by our founder, the former Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, who was English but spent around 50 years with the Hawarden Estate as his family home.

A day in the life of a Graduate Work Experience student

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 06th June 2019

While it's totally cliché to say this, no two days are the same when it comes to being a Graduate Work Experience student (GWE) at Gladstone’s Library. However, the motions we go through are pretty similar, and always full of valuable experience!

New for 1819! Books published 200 years ago…

by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 15th May 2019

At Gladstone’s Library we rotate our History Room display every month to focus on a different aspect of our collection. This month we’ve dug out some of our best examples of works published in 1819, exactly 200 years ago, to give you a taste of what people were reading during the Georgian Regency period of British history. 

The British Crime Writing Archive

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 03rd May 2019

Gladstone’s Library has, for three years, been home to the British Crime Writing Archive, made up of materials from the Crime Writers’ Association and The Detection Club. Martin Edwards, the Chair of the Crime Writers’ Association and the President of The Detection Club has worked closely with the Gladstone’s Library team to make the collections publically viewable here at the library.

On Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day

by Rhian Waller | Tuesday, 23rd April 2019

On Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day our thoughts and prayers are with the Armenian people, both the diaspora and those living in Armenia today.

Gladstone and the Romantics: our new April display

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 05th April 2019

Today when we consider the word ‘romantic’ we think of love and sentimentality, but the term ‘Romanticism’ had a much broader meaning, historically. Romanticism was a period which spanned the late 18th and early 19th centuries, emerging as a response to the disillusionment with the Enlightenment values of reason and order in the aftermath of the French Revolution of 1789. It covered a range of developments in art, literature, music and philosophy and William Gladstone himself would have been witness to its peak during his lifetime.

Play time by Oliver Emanuel

by Rhian Waller | Monday, 18th March 2019

My two year old daughter has been with me at Gladstone’s for the past few days. Like any parent of a toddler will tell you, her desire for play is tireless. Tell me a story. Let’s go outside. Shall we dance? I’m a monster. Rrrr. There is seemingly no end to her enthusiasm and joy for making things up and mucking around.

Susanna Forrest on walking

by Rhian Waller | Tuesday, 12th March 2019

After a certain age your body lets you know that sitting for hours at a desk requires a degree of physical fitness. Via carpal tunnel, twanging hamstrings or a classic 'bad back', you discover that you are not, in fact, capable of eight hours on what the Germans call your 'sitzfleisch' or 'seat meat'. 

W.E. Gladstone and nineteenth-century international law

by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 06th March 2019

This month’s display in our History Room focuses around William Gladstone and nineteenth-century international law. This is a large topic and this blog aims to add some extra details that unfortunately wouldn’t fit into the cabinet! 

Sophie Mackintosh on finding a routine

by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 06th March 2019

One of the most beneficial parts about coming to Gladstone’s is the opportunity to be far away from your usual daily routine. It’s amazing how much energy and brain-space is freed up when you take away so many parts of every day life - cooking, cleaning, commuting, and even having a television.

Sophie Mackintosh on making time to read

by Rhian Waller | Monday, 25th February 2019

Having never been a Writer in Residence before, I was extremely excited about the idea of getting an enormous amount of work done before having to head back to inconvenient ‘real life’. Write one book? The library is open from 9am to 10pm every day, after all - the problem will be writing too many books, if anything!

Tales of the supernatural: the library’s hidden creature features!

by Rhian Waller | Monday, 04th February 2019

At Gladstone’s Library we rotate our History Room display every month to focus on an aspect of Gladstone the man, or our extensive library catalogue. This February I decided to give some of our lesser-known collections a little TLC by presenting a display on 'Tales of the Supernatural: The Library’s Hidden Creature Features!' Additionally, to give you all some extra background on this exciting topic, I’m writing this blog for our website.

Gladstone, two books and a film for Christmas

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 20th December 2018

This is my Christmas…I was going to say ‘letter’, but I guess it is more of a homily. Hey-ho!  I don’t get to preach often these days but this is what I feel 'compelled' to write. My text, if you can call it that, comes from Naomi Alderman, now a much lauded and fully established novelist, who was our first Writer in Residence in 2012.

NOT researching in Gladstone’s Library...

by Rhian Waller | Monday, 26th November 2018

You know that moment, when you really should be hard at work. When you really should be reading your way through a particularly dense chapter that is connected to the subject of your next book, with loads of footnotes and references which you have to laboriously work your way through, holding down the page number, consulting the back of the (heavy) book, with the name of the author, the publisher, the date of publication, and let’s face it, all the boring information you need. And your neck begins to ache, and you think you really must stretch your legs, at least stand up and take a turn along the shelves where the grass suddenly seems greener, and the books seem far more glamorous and fascinating. And so you do...

Tales of Wonder and timeless tales of horror...

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 18th October 2018

The month of Halloween is in full flow; the nights draw closer, the mornings mistier, and that black cat at the end of the street grows ever more ominous each time you pass. So, as every fancy dress lover’s favourite day of the year looms over us like a pumpkin-shaped apparition, there has never been a more appropriate time to look into the spookier side of our collections here at Gladstone’s Library…

Edrychiad i fewn yr gasgliad Cymraeg / Looking into our Welsh collection

by Rhian Waller | Tuesday, 25th September 2018

Although not Welsh himself, in 1894 William Ewart Gladstone decided to found his library across the Welsh border for good reason. The beautiful, remote countryside of Hawarden village, as well as nearby historic areas such as Ruthin and Mold, are steeped in culture and Welsh heritage. With an abundance of hills, forests and, of course, castles, as well as the mountain range of Snowdonia, Gladstone envisaged that rather than the congested streets of London, Liverpool or Manchester, North Wales would serve as the perfectly serene backdrop for his incredible legacy as well as provide the necessary air of tranquillity for study and contemplation.

Gladfest interview: Miranda Kaufmann

by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 01st August 2018

Miranda Kaufmann is the author of Black Tudors: The Untold Story, and one of the wonderful guests joining us for Gladfest 2018. With just a month to go until the festival, we caught up with Miranda to find out what to expect from her new work, as well as glimpses into her writing life.

A Gladstone’s mystery: solved

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 06th July 2018

Have you ever wondered what the above symbol is? We use it everywhere - on our website, on our social media, our merchandise, even our business cards – it has, in time, become the symbol for Gladstone’s Library. But what exactly is it a symbol for? Where does it come from and what does it mean?

Rev Malcolm MacColl and ‘the noblest man whom I ever knew’

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 05th July 2018

We, the team at Gladstone’s Library, often come across little things in the library and archives that offer intrigue; especially since some of us are still new here! The library is over 100 years old so there are bound to be secrets to explore! One such occasion, for me, was the inscription in the Theology Room (one of our Reading Rooms), and the declaration of ‘undying affection’ for our founder, William Ewart Gladstone...

Polly Atkin on her February at Gladstone’s Library

by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 13th June 2018

Sitting with my feet in a river in rich yellow sun on a June evening, it’s hard to think of February with any clarity. Looking towards the summer solstice after six weeks of (almost) unremittingly fine weather, the library and my wintery sojourn there seems very far away, almost implausible. 

Gray’s Anatomy: the alien world of the human body

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 08th June 2018

Upon hearing the phrase Gray’s Anatomy, images may come to mind of the popular American TV series set in a Seattle hospital; however a much different medium bears the origin of this name. Within William Gladstone's own collection there exists a 3rd edition copy of Gray’s Anatomy. Not as some might suspect, a novelised version of the TV series, but rather a complete 'descriptive and surgical' look at anatomy.

William Ewart Gladstone: From birth to death

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 18th May 2018

19th May 2018, marks the 120th anniversary of William Ewart Gladstone’s death. The use of the word ‘anniversary’ may seem too jolly for such a sombre event; William Gladstone’s life was extraordinary and in this post we shall celebrate it and the man behind the podium.

Cal Flyn: Bilberry Woods / May

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 18th May 2018

Over a long day confined to a desk a mind can wander great distances. But bodies need exercise too. To this end, every evening before dinner – or sometimes after – I’ve been stepping into the dappled light for a walk or a jog through the Bilberry Woods, on the edge of the Hawarden Estate.

The Irish answer

by Rhian Waller | Tuesday, 01st May 2018

The items on show in our Display Cabinet this month have been curated by intern Alex Locke. Entitled ‘The Irish Answer’, the display concentrates on William Gladstone and Irish Home Rule, and shows not only the complexity of the issue, but the many different types of printed matter the subject generated. In this blog, Alex gives us more on one of the major political problems of the 19th Century… 

24th April: Genocide Day, Armenia

by Rhian Waller | Tuesday, 24th April 2018

1.5 million Armenians were killed (1915 – 1923) by the Ottoman Turks in what was the first genocide of the 20th Century. This followed the Armenian massacres of 1894 - 1896 and the Armenian Holocaust at Adana in 1909.

World Curlew Day: Books, birds, and St. Beuno

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 20th April 2018

21st April is World Curlew Day, the first annual international event with the aim of raising awareness of the Curlew, one of the most recognisable of wading birds (numenius arquata). According to the RSPB, there are 66,000 breeding pairs in the UK, with 140,000 individual curlews wintering on our shores and estuaries each year.

Rachel Malik on Horne’s Guide to Whitby and Dracula

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 19th April 2018

A few of the many things I loved about my stay:

The rook convention outside the library; window sills so wide you can organise your life on them; the giant woodpigeons; the mushroom quiche; that there is a book called The Best Books which Gladstone wrote his name in (some things seemed simpler in the late 19th Century); treacle tart; that I thought a lot, read a lot and wrote quite a lot. That I worked out on the last day my villain’s bad, bad secret. Guilty pleasure: watching both series of The Hour again in the evenings. I love Romola Garai.

It’s bloomin’ spring!

by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 11th April 2018

I've recently put together a display of books from our collection to illustrate the arrival of the new season - spring! This got me thinking about the meanings of the spring season itself.

Sir William Gladstone, 1925 - 2018

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 05th April 2018

Here at the Library we mourn the death of Sir William Gladstone Bt, great-grandson of our founder, William Ewart Gladstone, and formerly our Chairman of Trustees. We also celebrate the long and fulfilled life of a person who contributed so much to the Library, as well as to his country and his county.

Interview: Debbie Lewer on Art, Faith and Failure

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 16th March 2018

At the beginning of April Gladstone’s Library welcomes Debbie Lewer from the University of Glasgow to deliver a course exploring art, faith and failure within visual art from the Middle Ages to the present day. 

Debbie is an art historian who lectures on topics across the field, including on wider media such as photography and architecture. As we edge closer to April, we spoke to the her to find out a little more about her ideas, her work and what we can expect from 'Utterly Human: Art, Faith and Failure'... 

From the Archives…William Gladstone, patron of the arts

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 16th March 2018

William Ewart Gladstone, a lifelong student and scholar, is well known as a voracious reader and collector of books: Gladstone built up a remarkable personal library, reflecting the wide range of interests of a true Victorian polymath.

However, Gladstone is perhaps less well known for collecting paintings, sculpture, fine porcelain and ivories.

Beware the Ides of March

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 15th March 2018

Beware the Ides of March; a saying that can often be heard around this time. But why? Why are we warned to 'beware the Ides of March' and what is the story behind it?

Writing the Revolution

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 23rd February 2018

In this blog, intern Alex Locke writes about our latest History Room display for the month of March. The display focuses on how our collections at Gladstone's Library – some on display for the first time – can help illustrate one of the most tumultuous events in Western history – the French Revolution. Read on to find out more about how the printed word played a part in this extraordinary event, and how its influence impacted Gladstone's time as much as our own... 

From the Archives…Dossie Drew

by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 07th February 2018

Gladstone’s Library is delighted to introduce a new blog series entitled ‘From the Archives…’; a regular spotlight on some of the remarkable items we hold within our collections. The series will showcase a selection of our most weird, wonderful, and always fascinating holdings, so be sure to check back regularly for updates!

Inspirational books by inspirational women

by Rhian Waller | Tuesday, 06th February 2018

On 6th February 1918 the Representation of the People Act was passed which allowed women over the age of 30 who met a property qualification to vote. This gave 8.5 million women the vote (though it is important to note that this only represented 40% of the total population of women in the UK and it wasn’t until ten years later that women achieved full equality in voting rights).

Sophia, a poem

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 01st February 2018

Sophia (meaning ‘wisdom’ in Greek) was carved by sculpture and architectural stone carver Tom Waugh and has watched over the gardens at Gladstone's Library since 2010. Her four stone benches - Cariad (Love), Heddwch (Peace), Gwirionedd (Truth), and Cyfiawnder (Justice) - invite the thinker to idle and contemplate a-while.

Wales' very own St. Valentine!

by Rhian Waller | Tuesday, 23rd January 2018

St. Dwynwen is Wales’ patron saint of love and Dydd Santes Dwynwen is the Welsh equivalent of St. Valentine’s Day. Dwynwen (meaning ‘she who lives a blessed life’) was a 4th / 5th-century princess and one of King Brychan Brycheiniog’s 24 daughters. 

The reader behind the book - a look at marginalia

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 18th January 2018

Library Intern Katie Ruffley has curated this month's display which is on W.E. Gladstone's habit of marginalia, or writing in books. In this blog, Katie discusses some of the difficulties faced when trying to create a display about books – as well as the contentiousness of whether to write, or not to write, in the margins...

Gladstone's library of forking paths

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 18th January 2018

In this blog, library intern Carla Manfredino considers the library used by one of her favourite writers, Argentine author and librarian Jorge Luis Borges, and asks how many of those books could be found on the shelves here in Hawarden... 

Christmas reading recommends from the Gladstone's Library team!

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 15th December 2017

Gifting the perfect book to a person is one of the great joys of life; creating a perfect partnership which you can just feel in your bones will last.

With that in mind and as a little Christmas treat, the Gladstone's Library team have gathered together some of our books of the year and reading recommends perfect for stockings. If you are still looking for that perfect gift for someone special, we hope you can find inspiration within this guide! 

Gladstone, Hallam & Tennyson

by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 13th December 2017

Following Sarah Perry’s Gladstone Lecture on the subject of Gladstone, Hallam & Tennyson and the Idea of Friendship back in November, Intern Carla Manfredino ruminates on the close alliances between the three…

A weird and wonderful Welsh Christmas!

by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 06th December 2017

Every month the library team curates a new display for visitors and everyone who uses the library, highlighting the many wonderful collections we have on our shelves. This month, Intern Elspeth Brodie-Browne reflects on our final display of 2017, co-curated with Intern Katie Ruffley, all about the many Christmas traditions here in Wales... 

Germaine de Stael: The First Modern Woman

by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 08th November 2017

Every month the library team curates a new display for visitors and everyone who uses the library, highlighting the many wonderful collections we have on our shelves. This month, Intern Elspeth Brodie-Browne has put together an exhibit on one of the great figures of the French Revolutionary period, who died 200 years ago…

The Great Rivalry, as told by Punch

by Rhian Waller | Tuesday, 24th October 2017

History is littered with bitter rivalries - Sparta and Athens, Lancaster and York, Tom and Jerry. But in recent centuries few have come close to matching the antagonism and divergence in styles that existed between two of Britain’s most significant leaders of the Victorian period, William Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli. And what better way to learn about their rivalry than with the aid of every history student’s favourite source, (mostly because it beats sifting through mountains of unrelated papers), the satirical cartoon. 

Hearth interview: Will Harris

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 20th October 2017

Will Harris was born in London, of mixed Anglo-Indonesian heritage. He has worked in schools and as a tutor, co-edits the small press 13 Pages and is one of the organisers of The Poetry Inquisition. His poems have appeared in The Poetry Review, The White Review and The Rialto, where he is Assistant Editor. He is also part of the editorial team behind Swimmers and helped put together the first-ever Poetry Magazine Fair. He is a fellow of the Complete Works III, and will be published as part of the Bloodaxe anthology Ten: Poets of the New Generation. His debut pamphlet, All This is Implied, was published by HappenStance Press in June 2017. 

Hearth interview: Sam Guglani

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 20th October 2017

Sam Guglani is a poet, novelist and consultant oncologist who specialises in the management of lung and brain tumours. He has a background in medical ethics and chairs the Gloucestershire Hospitals Trust law and ethics group. Director of Medicine Unboxed since he founded it in 2009, Sam uses the arts and creative industries to illuminate challenges in medicine. He is a published poet and writes for The Lancet, and his debut novel Histories is released in 2017.

Musical Mary Drew

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 24th August 2017

The contents of Mary Drew’s diaries have been something of a surprise to me! But the daughter of a four-times Prime Minister, whom later acquired the position of Private Secretary to William Gladstone, did not hide her love of music. So much so, she wrote reviews about the music she listened to, the orchestras she went to see, and her own public and private performances.

Democracy by James Kirchick

by Rhian Waller | Monday, 07th August 2017

Staring at me from the desk in my bedroom at Gladstone’s Library during my recent residency was a postcard inscribed with a bit of the namesake’s wisdom: 

Liberalism is trust of the people tempered by prudence. Conservatism is distrust of the people tempered by fear. 

Things I learned while not editing my novel by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan

by Rhian Waller | Monday, 07th August 2017

I met my first Wikipedia surfer, almost 10 years ago. It was my first year at university. The polo-shirted boy explained that he spent hours clicking link after link. It wasted days of his life, he said and smiled. Back in my dorm, tucked into my duvet, I settled in with Wikipedia. I clicked a link. I read for a while, and then stopped. The site seemed useful, but I wasn’t entranced by the hyperlink pathway.

Gladfest interview: Louisa Young

by Rhian Waller | Monday, 07th August 2017

Louisa Young was born in London and educated there and at Cambridge University. She was a freelance journalist for many years, including for the Guardian, Marie-Claire and the motorcycle magazine, Bike. An interview with Johnny Cash led to the realisation that she couldn’t be a journalist any more, and she moved into fiction, biography, history, and recently, songwriting. Her first book was a biography of her grandmother Kathleen Scott, sculptor and widow of Captain Scott of the Antarctic, who lived in the house where Peter Pan was written, and in which Louisa grew up with five siblings and six cousins. 

Gladfest interview: Kate Hamer

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 20th July 2017

Kate Hamer grew up in Pembrokeshire and, after studying art, worked in television for over 10 years, mainly on documentaries. Her debut novel, The Girl in the Red Coat, was published by Faber & Faber in February 2015 and has sold in eight other territories. Kate won the Rhys Davies short story prize in 2011 and the story One Summer was broadcast on BBC Radio 4. She has also had work published in short story anthologies such as A Fiction Map of Wales and Seren’s New Welsh Short Stories. She lives in Cardiff with her husband. 

Work Experience by Olivia Jones

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 14th July 2017

Starting my Work Experience at Gladstone’s Library, I was given an introduction and tour of the library itself as well as the collections. Within the library are the History and Theology Rooms plus the Annex. After I was shown around, I helped to open the Reading Rooms and then carried out circulation of the books as well as reshelving them.

Work Experience by Harriet Lewis-Wilson

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 14th July 2017

The first day of my Work Experience at Gladstone’s Library incorporated a range of tasks that helped me get familiar with the library itself. I was introduced to the helpful, friendly staff and Interns who then showed me what I needed to do to open up the library which included turning on lights and checking the books were in the right place. 

Gladfest interview: Dan Richards

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 13th July 2017

Dan Richards was born in Wales in 1982 and grew up in Bristol. He has studied at UEA and Norwich Arts School. Dan is the co-author of Holloway with Robert Macfarlane and Stanley Donwood, published by Faber in 2013. The Beechwood Airship Interviews, a book about the creative process and the importance of art for art’s sake, was published by The Friday Project / HarperCollins in 2015.

“It’s a mere nonsense”: Gladstone’s Homeric Age

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 23rd June 2017

‘Looked into my papers on Homer: & I am strongly tempted to undertake something…’ wrote Gladstone on 7th July 1855, unaware that that ‘something’ would occupy his thoughts for much of the next three years. What began as a small project to be completed while out of office grew to a three volume work: Homer and the Homeric Age (1858).

Work Experience by Kate Robertson

by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 14th June 2017

This morning I helped to open up the library and start the circulation process, which meant that I had to use the Heritage Online software and the Cirqaclient software. 

Work Experience by Mia Mori

by Rhian Waller | Monday, 05th June 2017

Starting my week of Work Experience at Gladstone’s Library I wasn’t sure what to expect when I arrived. Since it was Founder’s Day, an annual event at the Library, it wasn’t the average day of work.

Work Experience by Owen Yale-Helms

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 01st June 2017

The start of my Work Experience was not an ordinary day at Gladstone’s Library; it was Founder’s Day and was one of Gladstone Library’s most important events of the year.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

by Rhian Waller | Tuesday, 30th May 2017

Interns at Gladstone’s Library are encouraged to contribute periodic blogs on aspects of William Gladstone, the Library and its collections which really spark their interest or tie in with their own areas of expertise.

With the acquisition of the British Crime Writing Archives at Gladstone’s Library and our first ever Alibis in the Archive event taking place to launch that archive (now SOLD OUT!), Intern Danielle set about coming up with a murder mystery of her own to really get into the criminal spirit of things to come…

Our Friends sign-up regulations are changing

by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 17th May 2017

Please note that the sign-up regulations for Friends of the Library are changing. 

Following advice from our insurers, Gladstone’s Library is now only able to accept Friend applications from individuals in Year 12 and above. As the Reading Rooms at Gladstone’s Library are unstaffed after 5pm, unfortunately individuals under this age are not permitted to remain in this unsupervised area due to safeguarding issues. 

Interview: Fierce Imaginings with Rachel Mann

by Rhian Waller | Tuesday, 09th May 2017

Rachel Mann has worked as Teaching Fellow in the Philosophy Department at Lancaster University and holds qualifications in Theology and Creative Writing / English Literature. She began writing poetry, liturgy and short stories in the late nineties and has also written feminist liturgical theology, cultural history and is a regular contributor to the Church Times. Rachel has published three books; Fierce Imaginings, Dazzling Darkness and The Risen Dust as well as contributing to many others. 

Voting: A blog by Warden Peter Francis

by Rhian Waller | Monday, 08th May 2017

A visitor to the Library has just shown me a glass plate made in 1869 to celebrate Gladstone being elected as Prime Minister. It is embossed with the slogan ‘Gladstone for the Million’, which is simply a way of saying ‘for the many’. It is just one of the many commemorative plates, jugs, cups and even chamber pots that were made in honour of Gladstone and offer striking testimony to his popularity.

Interview: Michael Nobbs on Building a Sustainably Creative Life

by Rhian Waller | Monday, 03rd April 2017

Michael Nobbs is the author of Drawing Your Life and publishes an illustrated journal called The Beany. Michael is an artist, podcaster and tea-drinker. At the end of the 1990s he was diagnosed with ME/CFS, a chronic illness that severely limits how much he can do each day. Over the years he’s learnt a lot about living the best life he can by accepting what he can’t change and working with what he can.

Interview: Nicholas Draper on Remembering Slavery

by Rhian Waller | Tuesday, 28th March 2017

Nicholas Draper is Director of the new Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slave-ownership at UCL. Prior to this he was Co-director of the recent Structure and Significance of British Caribbean Slave-ownership 1763-1833 project, and was a founder member of its precursor, the Legacies of British Slave-ownership project (2009-2012).

The Swiss Intern

by Rhian Waller | Monday, 20th March 2017

My name is Jennifer, I’m 22 years old and I’m the current Swiss intern at Gladstone’s Library. But how did somebody from Switzerland get to work here? Long story...

The Treasures of Closed Access: Samuel Wesley’s Life of Christ

by Rhian Waller | Monday, 27th February 2017

The Closed Access section of the Reading Rooms contains some of the Library’s oldest and rarest literary works and collections. It includes about 15 Incunabula, texts printed between 1450 and 1501, as well as a collection of books once owned by the Glynne family, of whom Catherine, William Gladstone’s wife, was a member.

One of the books housed in Closed Access is Samuel Wesley’s The Life of our blessed Lord & Saviour. An Heroic Poem.

Key Strokes: Writer as Swimmer by William Atkins

by Rhian Waller | Monday, 27th February 2017

I’ve always been interested in the relationship between the work of the mind and that of the body, how one can influence the other, and the extent to which the physical overlaps with the mental: How the reservoir of one kind of energy seeps into or draws upon the other.

What would Gladstone think...?

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 15th December 2016

I suppose it comes with the job but people have a habit of asking me, 'What would Gladstone think...' about such and such? Well, it is often impossible to say, although admittedly, that doesn't always silence me. Today, somebody asked me what Gladstone would think about our contemporary Christmas.

Reconsidering the Apostles' Creed

by Rhian Waller | Monday, 24th October 2016

Last week (18th – 22nd October) Gladstone’s Library hosted 107 people who, over the course of two conferences and one public lecture, reflected on their Christian Faith, what is essential to Christian faith and how could it be reframed in the light of Biblical scholarship.

Gladstone's Library on BBC Radio!

by Rhian Waller | Monday, 10th October 2016

Last month BBC Radio Wales’ All Things Considered visited Gladstone’s Library to speak to Warden Peter Francis about what role our Victorian library plays in contemporary life.

Reading Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day

by Rhian Waller | Tuesday, 13th September 2016

Ask someone to name a Virginia Woolf novel and they may well mention To The Lighthouse or Mrs Dalloway. Night and Day, Woolf’s second novel published in 1919 – a copy of which can be found in the Annex – probably won’t come up in conversation unless you are talking to someone who is a dedicated Woolf reader. Night and Day isn’t what you might expect of her. Think of Woolf and the word experimental comes to mind. It’s also somewhat longer than some of her later novels. This is early Woolf, on the way to breaking with convention and doing things differently, but not there yet.

A blog from Gladfest Festival Director, Louisa Yates

by Rhian Waller | Tuesday, 13th September 2016

On Sunday 4th September, at approximately 5pm, I was the lucky recipient of a bout of applause. Over 80 people showed their appreciation in the usual way for two-and-a-bit days of Gladfest, our now annual fixture where the brightest stars of the literary firmament come to Hawarden. If I do say so myself, that applause was especially well deserved this year. Gladfest has always been good but there was an energy about it this year that really made it one-of-a-kind.

Gladfest interview: Malcolm Guite

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 11th August 2016

Malcolm Guite is a poet and a priest working as Chaplain of Girton College, Cambridge. He also teaches for the Divinity Faculty and for the Cambridge Theological Federation and lectures widely in England and North America on Theology and Literature. Malcolm works as a librettist for composer Kevin Flanagan and his Riprap Jazz Quartet, and has also worked in collaboration with American composer J.A.C. Redford, and Canadian singer-songwriter Steve Bell. He was the inaugural Artist in Residence at Duke Divinity School in the USA in September 2014, and ‘Visionary in Residence’ at Biola in Los Angeles in March 2015. 

Gladfest interview: Ian Parks

by Rhian Waller | Tuesday, 02nd August 2016

Ian Parks was one of the first Writers in Residence at Gladstone's Library in 2012. His collections of poems include Shell Island, The Landing Stage, Love Poems 1979-2009, and The Exile's House. He is the editor of Versions of the North: Contemporary Yorkshire Poetry and was Writing Fellow at De Montfort University, Leicester from 2012 - 2014.

A book list with a difference

by Rhian Waller | 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 Rhian Waller | 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.

Reading List: Politics of the Mid-Tudor Crisis

by Rhian Waller | 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 Rhian Waller | 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.

Stronger Together by Emma Rees

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 24th June 2016

Last weekend I ran a workshop for around 20 people as part of my writing residency at Gladstone’s Library. I arrived a week earlier, on the Sunday when the news was breaking about the brutal murders of dozens of people at Pulse, an LGBTQI nightclub in Orlando. On Thursday, as the ghastly news from America had only just begun to soak into the fabric of the world’s narrative palimpsest, I was writing at my desk when I heard about the murder of Jo Cox on the streets of West Yorkshire. That same day, I read, Boko Haram had shot dead 18 women who were attending a funeral in Kudu, Nigeria. The news reports on all three cases, and the Twitter updates and Facebook posts about them, combined to have the effect of making the world – already a dangerous place – feel somehow more urgently precarious.

A translation of Gladstone’s German annotations

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 16th June 2016

William Ewart Gladstone, the founder of Gladstone's Library, was a diligent and intelligent man. Apart from being Britain’s longest serving Prime Minister to this day, he also managed to read 22,000 books and even found the time to annotate 11,000 of them. And not just in his native language, English; he also annotated his books in at least five other languages: Latin, Italian, Greek, French and German.

Work Experience diary - Ewan Jackson

by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 08th June 2016

The reason I wanted to spend my Work Experience at Gladstone’s Library was because I wanted to be surrounded by literature. Gladstone’s Library offered a fantastic chance to be personally enhanced by its vast selection of books and debates whilst advancing my career skills and vocabulary. The Library also provided a prime opportunity to understand the versatility necessary to be a successful employee.

Work Experience diary – Beth Morgan

by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 08th June 2016

I am a year 10 student in St Richard Gwyn Catholic High School, studying English Literature, French, and Drama. Outside of school (and my time at Gladstone Library), I go to my local drama group. The reason I wanted to spend my Work Experience at Gladstone Library was because I was looking for a place that fitted in with my three GCSE options. After researching some different options.

Nature Notes from the Reading Rooms

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 27th May 2016

If you've used the Reading Rooms here at the Library in the last few weeks, you may have heard some peculiar noises. Library Assistant Gary Butler explains all...

The Curious Case of the Changeling Chairs

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 13th May 2016

Spring is a time of change and natural miracles. Just to walk around Hawarden is to be faced with ample evidence of this: the leaves are new-green, lambs hop in the fields, and country strolls frequently feature herds of cows who enjoy slobbering on my hands and terrorising my taurophobic co-worker.

Gladstone's Library, commuting and Kung Fu

by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 11th May 2016

I am asked frequently by visitors to Gladstone's Library, and by my friends, what it is that I do during my time here. This blog will give a bit of insight into my routine as the only non-residential intern currently on the team at Gladstone's Library.

Snowdonia by Amy Liptrot

by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 04th May 2016

This morning I put my swimsuit on under my clothes and drove from the Library to Snowdonia. On the way, I stopped at a Holy Well (‘The Welsh Lourdes’, 1 pound entry) where they displayed the crutches of pilgrims, no longer needed after taking the Holy Water.

Exploring the sexual revolution with Timothy Sedgwick

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 21st April 2016

In June we welcome Timothy Sedgwick of the Virginia Theological Seminary to deliver a course exploring just that. Considering a history of the transformation of desire, body and society, and the aftermath of the revolution, this course runs 13th – 14th June 2016 and will be an open forum for ideas and discussion.

The Writing Process by Susan Barker

by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 13th April 2016

A writer I like, Mohsin Hamed, wrote an essay for the New York Times a couple of years ago, in which he described the DNA of fiction as a double-helix: one strand comprised of what the writer knows, and the other strand comprised of what the writer wants to know.

A day in the life of a Library Intern

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 01st April 2016

Just what do our interns do all day? In her final blog, outgoing intern Kirsten-Rose Brooks bids farewell to the Library and provides an insight into life on the Library team.

Guest blog: Writing Echo Hall at Gladstone's Library

by Rhian Waller | Monday, 21st March 2016

I first heard about Gladstone’s Library in 2011 when I picked up a leaflet at the Hay Festival. I am a huge fan of William Gladstone, a Prime Minister who, for all his failings, really tried to improve the lot of ordinary people. So I was delighted to discover his library existed, and furthermore that it was possible to stay there. I was in the midst of writing my novel Echo Hall at the time and the idea of a writing retreat at Hawarden was very tempting. But, it’s a long way from Oxford and being a busy working parent it wasn’t until 2013 that I finally managed to make the trip.

What We're Reading...Kirsten-Rose Brooks, Library Intern

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 18th March 2016

Welcome to a new series on the Volume blog, What We're Reading, in which members of the Library team divulge their current reads and what they think of them. This week, it's my turn: Kirsten-Rose Brooks, one of the three library interns, avid reader and aspiring writer. 

A blog by Rebecca Farmer

by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 16th March 2016

If you are lucky enough to stay at Gladstone’s Library for a whole month, and I was, it is almost inevitable that, by the end of your stay, there will be things that get left behind and other things you will take away. I could get metaphysical about leaving behind a month of my life that had now become the past but, instead, I’ll tell you about the washing I left. Now is not the time for intimate detail but you’ll be relieved to know the washing was clean and had been left hanging on a rack. I was soon reunited with it when it arrived in the post neatly parcelled up as a kind of living proof that my stay at the Library hadn’t all been a dream…(cue wavy images, floaty music…). 

Dear W.E.G. - a blog by intern Mary

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 11th March 2016

Dear W.E.G.,

Let me introduce myself: I'm Mary, the greenest Intern in Gladstone's Library, having begun 10 days ago. You may remember me from the 2am chat I had with you on the eve of my interview, when nerves stopped me sleeping and your portrait kept side-eyeing me. As I learn more about this place, I feel I'm getting to know you; let me reciprocate, then, by telling you about my first week here.

Interview: Natasha Pulley

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 25th February 2016

Natasha Pulley is our February Writer in Residence here at Gladstone’s Library. This means that for the entire month, Natasha has been living in, working on her current project, reading, conversing and just generally giving us all a lot to think about over dinner!

The Gladstone's Library team: what we're reading

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 29th January 2016

At the Library, all of our staff and guests are united by (what else?) a love of books and reading. This week I investigated just what we’ve got our noses in at the moment, and there’s some fantastic reading inspiration to be found!

How I met Sylvia Pankhurst by Rachel Holmes

by Rhian Waller | Tuesday, 26th January 2016

"How and why did you choose this subject?" 

As a biographer, this is the question I'm most frequently asked. I've been on the road with my latest book, Eleanor Marx: A Life for nearly two years since it was published on May Day 2014, and there's not a single event, interview, lecture or festival so far where this question hasn't come up. 

The Grand Old Man and his legacy

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 17th December 2015

One of the most popular questions we're asked on our Glimpses is ‘did Gladstone live here?’ The answer is no, he didn’t. Sadly, although Gladstone worked so hard to leave his scholarly legacy behind, building his collection from the ground up and helping to design the very shelves within, Gladstone himself never walked through the Hogwarts-like library admiring the wood carving and the silence. That isn’t to say you can't sense his legacy though…

Hawarden: a history

by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 16th December 2015

Have you ever wondered about the history of the little village that we’re nestled in? Well, we’ve been digging around to bring you some of the facts!

The Gladstones and the Pankhursts by Rachel Holmes

by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 25th November 2015

I’ve spent the day dusting off the historical connections between the Gladstones and the Pankhursts. These legendary British political families didn’t exactly have reciprocal dinner parties or exchange Christmas cards, but for the best part of two generations, they catalyzed each other’s lives.

Turn to books for the perfect present this Christmas!

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 13th November 2015

Halloween is well and truly over, the embers of Bonfire Night have dwindled away and now that November is in full swing it’s time to start thinking about what you might like to buy your loved ones for Christmas. Unless you simply ask someone what they’d like, it can be very difficult to decide on the perfect gift. Of course, at Gladstone’s Library we suggest you can rarely go wrong with a good book!

A Feast of Words and Ideas: Gladfest by Robyn Cadwallader

by Rhian Waller | Tuesday, 10th November 2015

September isn’t the time to leave Australia and go travelling to the other side of the world. It’s the first month of spring. The air moves more lightly; the hard, hopeful buds are beginning to swell; the trees are coated in the bright green of young leaves; the blossom appears, seemingly, overnight; and the magpies turn ballsy. Outside my kitchen the Wisteria transforms from winding sticks to purple lanterns and the veggie garden grows weeds at an alarming rate.

Interview with visiting philosopher Jane Dryden

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 23rd October 2015

Throughout the month of October, philosopher Jane Dryden has been staying at the Library as our Theologian in Residence.

On a not-so-sunny day mid-month, we sat down with her to find out what she’s been working on, tucked away at her favourite gallery desk…

Salley Vickers talks inspiration and style in another SOLD OUT Writers in Residence event

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 14th August 2015

‘A short story is like a love affair’ – Salley Vickers describes her latest published work, The Boy Who Could See Death, remarking on the difference between her many novels and her latest collection of short stories. For the lucky people who find themselves in front of the phenomenally successful author on Tuesday night, it proves to be a moving and insightful evening with discussion ranging from Salley’s childhood memories of Venice to her experiences as a psycho-analytical specialist.

Reflections - by Lachlan Mackinnon

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 31st July 2015

'On my way here, I read Joanne Limburg’s terrific new novel, A Want of Kindness, about Queen Anne. Quite apart from lighting up a patch of history I knew nothing about, the novel so engrossed me that I felt I was travelling through a much older country. I was therefore briefly startled by how much Gladstone’s Library is a child of his century...'

Founder's Day 2015 - watch the video

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 24th July 2015

Loyd Grossman takes the chair for our Annual Gladstone Lecture as our multi-talented panel discuss whether the Library currently demonstrates the same enthusiasm for spirituality, literary culture and political discourse as the Grand Old Man himself.

Our panellists answer the question 'Does the Library remain truly ‘Gladstonian’ today?

A Walk in the Woods - a blog by Chaplain, Penelope Duckworth

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 23rd July 2015

One of the many joys of being at Gladstone's Library, where I have come to serve two months as Chaplain, is to go for a walk through the Gladstone estate, which the family kindly offers to the public and gives further access (with an available pass) to Residents of the Library.

Shortlist for our 2016 Writers in Residence programme announced

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 09th July 2015

Gladstone’s Library has revealed the 10 books shortlisted for its successful Writers in Residence programme.

Now into its fifth year, the prize was established by Gladstone’s Library in association with Damian Barr (saloniere and author of Maggie and Me) to explore and define liberal values in the twenty-first century.

The shortlist is made up of novels, poetry and creative non-fiction that, in the eyes of the shortlisters, best represent some of the most creative writing in the world today.

The Art of Bookbinding, by Lauren Christina Holmes

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 06th November 2014

Within the first month of my internship, Siân (one of the previous interns) had embarked upon a day-long bookbinding course. Although I’d spent much of my life around books, as silly as it seems, the thought had never occurred to me that some books were made by human hands. I rather expected all books nowadays to be stamped into existence by a great, clunking, efficient machine. I thought that hand-bound books belonged to the centuries before industry charged into towns and cities and made flesh hands idle and cold metal grind.

The Great War, Literature, and Us

by Rhian Waller | Tuesday, 05th August 2014

Greg Garrett, one of America's outstanding professors is one of our current guests at Gladstone's Library. Here he shares his thoughts on The Great War...

Founder's Day 2014

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 25th July 2014

Founder’s Day is one of the most prestigious dates in the Gladstone’s Library calendar.On July 7 members of the Gladstone family, Trustees, Fellows of the Library and their special gue

Who is Rumi by Muriel Maufroy

by Rhian Waller | Tuesday, 20th May 2014

Muriel Maufroy introduces you to Jalaluddin Rumi and explains why a thirteenth-century poet has been the bestselling american poet for two decades.

Understanding Gladstone by Kate Atkinson

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 06th March 2014

Kate Atkinson, a work experience student at Gladstone's Library, writes about her time with us and about what she learned of the Grand Old Man during her time with us.

Lying in Wait by Phillip Clement

by Rhian Waller | Tuesday, 17th December 2013

Few times in my life have I been as insulted as I was on the evening of Wednesday last.I rose, as is my morning custom, at a respectable 8.15am and underwent my usual morning routine...

A Call to Arms by Jamie Stokes

by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 11th December 2013

The noble consulting intern, Jamie Stokes, picks up the gauntlet laid down for him by the mysterious "Professor" and, so it seems, not a moment to soon...

The Game is Afoot by Phillip Clement

by Rhian Waller | Monday, 09th December 2013

In response to the recent publication of Mr Jamie Stokes' 'Commencing the Treasure Hunt' web log, Phillip Clement, writes to his adversary to forewarn him...

Professor A.C. Grayling Founders Day Lecture

by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 24th July 2013

Gladstones Library welcomed Professor A.C. Grayling to the Library as part of its Founders Day celebrations this month. As part of the days events he gave a lecture on The necessity of a liberal education...

Introducing the Timeline Project by Gary Butler

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 28th June 2013

The usefulness of books constantly changes over time. While library buildings remain fixed as permanent structures, the collection of books within them are always in a state of flux. Reorganising lib

History Revisited by Muriel Maufroy

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 21st June 2013

To accept that our views on historical matters need examination and possibly re-evaluation is certainly a challenge, but a rewarding one. This is exactly what Fergus Nicolls book, Gladstone, Gordon an

The Faith Thing

by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 23rd May 2012

So, what of faith? Theres no getting away from it here in the Library, from its actual founding, to the theology room in the library itself, to the event last night to open the Robinson Room; from St

Faithful Citizenship

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 13th April 2012

Todays post is courtesy of regular visitor to Gladstones Library, author Greg Garrett. His latest book on religion and politics, Faithful Citizenship, is out this week.

Naomi takes stock

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 15th March 2012

Gladstone is everywhere in this building. Paintings, writings, sculptures, even a photograph or two. There's a statue of him in the library itself in which I swear he's doing the Saturday Night Fever dance. (Secretly, I give him a little Staying-Alive salute when I'm alone in the library late at night.)

Zombies, Run!

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 02nd March 2012

Here our Writer-In-Residence, Naomi Alderman talks about the new iPhone app which she has created with games studio Six to Start.

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