In conversation with Mel Pennant

Tuesday evening, 13 October - 7:00 - 8:30pm (6:30 for tea & cake)

Jamaica Road is a transformative love story about two best friends from a tight-knit British-Jamaican community - two best friends who fall for each other, fall apart, and try to find their way back together in their tight-knit British-Jamaican community.

Daphne is the only Black girl in her South London class in 1981. Her quiet life changes when Connie arrives from Jamaica. As their bond deepens against a city’s unrest, family tensions and a perilous secret force them to navigate love, loyalty, and belonging over a turbulent decade.

Lisa Smith is a prizewinning writer from South London.

She will be joined in conversation by Mel Pennant, author of A Murder for Miss Hortense

Admission Free

Reserve a place on Eventbrite (and this helps with planning - thanks)

Organised by the Friends of Carnegie Library in cooperation with Lambeth's Librarians.

Tuesday evening, 8th September - 7pm to 8:30pm (6:30 for tea & cake)

Dr Jane Jordan

Dr Jane Jordan will give an illustrated talk on Doulton’s Lambeth Art Pottery and the conditions for its professional women artists - at the Carnegie Library

She will take us inside Doulton’s Lambeth Art Pottery, Vauxhall to discover what conditions were like for professional women artists, and why many chose long careers over marriage. We highlight those who lived in and around Herne Hill and look at a range of 1870s to 1920s vases.

Organised by the Friends of Carnegie Library

Free admission

Please register for a free ticket at Eventbrite (to help with planning)

Mark Westmoquette

Tuesday evening 11 August, 7pm - 8:30pm at the Carnegie library

This will be a remarkable journey through 20 wondrous 5-minute stories and stargazing activities for parents, grandparents, teachers or librarians to connect children with the majesty of the cosmos:

• Discover the pull of gravity

• Realise that we’re all made of star dust

• Delight in tales about the origin of the constellations

• Learn to expand our breath to the edge of the universe

• And so much more!

Packed with stunning illustrations by Kiki Kita, this extraordinary collection of meditations, mindful reflections, myths and calming activities are perfect for the whole family.

Grounded in science, this book from astrophysicist Mark Westmoquette invites you to help children discover the wonders of life.

Organised by the Friends of Carnegie Library in cooperation with the Lambeth Library Service

Admission free

Book on eventbrite (helps with planning, thanks)

Tales from the Southern Commons

Tuesday evening, 14 April: 7 - 8:30 pm at The Carnegie Library

South Parks is a collection of twenty short stories set in, about or around a selection of South London open spaces. Inside are talking statues, strange cults, pagan estate agents and a very wrong horse. There are foxes and a vengeful toilet goddess but also stories of love, friendship, family life and growing up.

Expect anti-golf riots and stolen geese as we celebrate places to sit in, places to play in and places to spend the day in alongside contemporary (and older) threats to the concept of free open spaces in London. There may also be references to park toilet goddesses, pagan estate agents, mermaids looking for a mate and Peckham Rye’s gay cultural renaissance alongside a celebration of south London’s open spaces. The talk will switch between the real and the magically real and is based on his book South Parks: Stories from the Southern Commons.

Chris Roberts is a London writer and tour guide who has written books on the history of nursery rhymes, London's bridges, lost words and superstition in football. He has been conducting walking tours around London for most of this century.

The Friends of Carnegie Library invite you to attend this event with Chris Parks, which is part of our monthly series of Author Events, always on the second Tuesday of the month, always at the Carnegie Library (except once during covid), always Admission Free.

The event will start at 7 pm but please come early for tea & cakes, from 6:30.

Reservations are not strictly necessary, but we do ask people to register at Eventbrite, to help with planning.

We thank the librarians at Carnegie Library for their assistance with staging this event, and indeed for all their dedication and efforts which keep the Carnegie Library running as the great and much loved community library that it is for Herne Hill and Loughborough Junction and environs.

The event was well attended by a very appreciative audience. Many thanks to Chris and to all who attended for making this a memorable occasion.

Katherine Connelly

At the library - 10 March, 7-8:30pm

We are delighted to welcome Katherine Connelly to discuss her book Sylvia Pankhurst: Suffragette, Socialist and Scourge of Empire. This is part of International Women's Day celebrations.

Katherine Connelly is a writer and historian known for her significant contributions to the field of history. In addition to this biography of Sylvia Pankhurst she has edited A Suffragette in America: Reflections on Prisoners, Pickets and Political Change.

Sylvia Pankhurst: Suffragette, Socialist and Scourge of Empire focuses on Sylvia Pankhurst's activism as a prominent suffragette and socialist leader and her role in the British anti-war movement.

As a historian of the suffragette movement Katherine Connelly has featured on Netflix in the documentary series A Tale of Two Sisters and on Channel 4 in Secrets of a Suffragette. In 2014 for BBC Radio 4 she presented a four-part mini series on women's history in East London.

Her books provide valuable insights into the struggles for social change and the importance of political activism.

Admission is free.

Organised by the Friends of Carnegie Library, in cooperation with the Lambeth Librarians.

For further information and to help with planning, please book a place on Eventbrite.