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.

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)

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.

by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 23rd November 2022

The 2023 Writer in Residence programme at the Library, based in Hawarden, Flintshire, will see writers live and work within the Grade I listed neo-Gothic Victorian building for up to a month.

by Rhian Waller | Tuesday, 25th October 2022

This week Revd Dr Andrea Russell became the first new Warden at Gladstone's Library in 25 years - and is also the first woman to take up the role - a historic moment for this unique place of learning (post in Welsh and English)

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. 

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. 

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 30th September 2022

We are very pleased to announce that two new scholarships designed to help researchers uncover and record histories of Black British people, and enslavement, have been launched at Gladstone’s Library.

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 08th September 2022

The Trustees, staff, and volunteers of Gladstone’s Library wish to express our profound sorrow at the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

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...

by Rhian Waller | Monday, 25th July 2022

Fourteen authors are in the running to secure a month-long residency at Gladstone's Library.

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 07th July 2022

The Trustees of Gladstone's Library are delighted to announce and confirm the appointment of a new Warden and Director of Gladstone's Library.

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 07th July 2022

Peter Francis, who joined the Library in the late 90s, has overseen many changes during his tenure. 

by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 06th July 2022

Mr Burgess quipped that he thought the fellowship was “basically for good attendance” but added, “Peter and the Library have been kind to me over the years, and both are near my heart, so I am very delighted and a little embarrassed to be offered a fellowship.

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. 

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 09th June 2022

As part of our de-accessioning project we are looking to return work to GST students postgraduate and doctoral students, 2010-17.

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."

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.  

by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 25th May 2022

by Rhian Waller | Friday, 20th May 2022

"For anyone aspiring to write the kind of poems that might reveal the movements of the imagination in words, the challenge is to keep moving."

by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 18th May 2022

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.

by Rhian Waller | Monday, 04th April 2022

Our large de-accessioning project has restarted. Could you give a collection title a new home?

by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 31st March 2022

Since March is Women’s History Month, it seemed appropriate to spotlight some of the women book owners recently identified within the collections.

by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 30th March 2022

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.

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.

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!"

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.

by Rhian Waller | Tuesday, 08th February 2022

Many volumes in the Gladstone's Library collection are contemporary, but sometimes even those that were printed a century or more ago offer unique insights into current affairs. Author Melissa Harrison witnessed this first-hand when she happened across an anti-vaccination book while drafting a new novel in our Reading Rooms.

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."

by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 19th January 2022

"Andrew’s book and ideas are a significant step toward a process of healing and of building trust between Church and society."