Category Archives: Author Event

Dr Oriel Prizeman: History and Ethos of Carnegie Libraries

Saturday, 25 November - 2:30 to 4:00 pm

Presented by the Friends

Dr Oriel Prizeman is an expert on sustainable building conservation and Victorian architecture.

Carnegie Libraries in particular.

MA (Cantab) AADip PhD (Cantab)

She will talk to us about the past, present, and future of Carnegie Libraries.

  • Andrew Carnegie, the man and the ethos behind his bequests.
  • The history of the creation of the libraries, leading onto recent history.
  • The importance of the role the libraries have played in Britain over more than a hundred years.
  • Relations between Carnegie Libraries.
  • Architectural and heritage considerations.
  • A look towards the future.

"How great architecture from the past was designed to work with rather than fight the environment, and how well-informed sensitivity can both protect and enhance our most precious built heritage."

"Prizeman challenges long-held assumptions about Carnegie Libraries by arguing that their environmental performance was was more significant than their function as libraries."

Reserve a spot by registering with Eventbrite

(This talk will not be livestreamed - please attend in-person)

Deborah Harrington: how we pay for public services

Tuesday evening, 14 November 7pm to 8:30pm - at the library (or online)

Presented by Friends of Carnegie Library

Please come along for what promises to be a lively discussion and a fresh look at the future for public services (our NHS, our schools, our pensions, and yes even our libraries) and how to move beyond that old question which often ends all debate: "How ya gonna pay for it"?

Is it true the government has been on the verge of bankruptcy? Is paying for a green transition more than the government can afford? Is the pensions triple-lock leaving no money for schools and libraries? Do we need billionaires to fund the NHS? If you’re a housing or health campaigner or you just really care about public services, this talk will open your eyes to a new way of understanding ‘how we pay for it’. Don’t miss it!

Deborah Harrington is co-author of the last chapter in the recently published Modern Monetary Theory: key insights, leading thinkers, which includes chapters by leading MMT economists and activists from the US and the UK. The book is a project of The Gower Initiative for Modern Money Studies.

The Gower Initiative is part of a growing international movement which challenges the economic orthodoxy of the last four decades - of austerity. The Initiative was founded by a group of five women with a keen interest in politics and economics from a lay perspective rather than an academic one.

Deborah Harrington

Co-director of Public Matters, an independent research and information partnership focused on public service -- Advisory Board member of The Gower Initiative. From 2017-2020 Public Matters provided the Secretariat for the All Party Parliamentary Group on Health in All Policies in the House of Commons.

Deborah Harrington's chapter, co-authored with Jessica Ormerod her co-director at Public Matters, is entitled "Modern Monetary Theory and public policy in the United Kingdom".

To view the event online, for the live-stream, follow this link to the Carnegie Library Facebook page at 7pm on Tuesday.

And a recording of this event will be available on the same Carnegie Library Facebook page, along with recordings of previous Friends author events .

For further information click here.

Stephen Bourne’s War to Windrush

Black Women in Britain 1939 to 1948

Tuesday evening, 10 October 7pm to 8:30pm - at the library and online

Commemorating the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the Empire Windrush, Stephen Bourne's War to Windrush explores the lives of Britain's immigrant community through the experiences of Black British women during the period spanning from the beginning of World War II to the arrival of the Empire Windrush in 1948.

In those short years, Black British women performed an integral role in keeping the country functioning and set the stage for the arrival of other Black Britons on the Empire Windrush. The book shows first-hand what life was like in Britain for Black women through photography and evocative prose.

War to Windrush is a celebration of multiculturalism and immigration, much needed in today’s political climate. For more information about Stephen's Black British history books go to www.stephenbourne.co.uk

Organised and presented by the Friends of Carnegie Library

Reserve a spot

Author C.J. Schüler: The Wood that Built London

Tuesday, 12 September 7:00 - 8:30 at the library (or online)

Author C.J. Schüler presents his book exploring the vast woods which were intensively managed for a thousand years, providing timber for construction, furniture and shipbuilding, and charcoal for London's blacksmiths, kilns and bakeries. Now they afford important green space, a vital habitat for small mammals, birds and insects.

The Great North Wood gave its name to Norwood.

Event organised by the Friends of Carnegie Library as part of the Lambeth Heritage Festival, and with the cooperation of and kind assistance from the Carnegie Library librarians

This event will be streamed live online - to view online please register with Eventbrite

Crime Writing with Louise Candlish

Join Louise Candlish to discuss her latest crime novel - The Only Suspect

Tuesday evening, 8 August 7 to 8:30 (at the library or online)

Presented by Friends of Carnegie Libary

Wrong time. Wrong place. Wrong man. Alex lives a comfortable life with his wife Beth in the leafy suburb of Silver Vale. Fine, so he’s not the most sociable guy on the street, he prefers to keep himself to himself, but he’s a good husband and an easy-going neighbour. That’s until Beth announces the creation of a nature trail on a local site that’s been disused for decades and suddenly Alex is a changed man. Now he’s always watching. Questioning. Struggling to hide his dread . . . . As the landscapers get to work, a secret threatens to surface from years ago, back in Alex’s twenties when he got entangled with a seductive young woman called Marina, who threw both their lives into turmoil. And who sparked a police hunt for a murder suspect that was never quite what it seemed. It still isn’t. No one else could have done it. Could they?

Louise Candlish is the Sunday Times bestselling author of fourteen novels. Our House, a #1 bestseller, won the Crime & Thriller Book of the Year at the 2019 British Book Awards, was long-listed for the 2019 Theakston Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year, and was short-listed for the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award. It is soon to be a major ITV drama made by Death in Paradise producers Red Planet Pictures. Louise lives in London with her husband and daughter.

Visit her at LouiseCandlish.com or connect with her on Twitter @Louise_Candlish.

To attend online, register at Eventbrite for an invitation and link.

Simon Keable-Elliott

Tuesday evening, 11 July 19:00 - 20:30 (in the library or online)

Simon Keable-Elliott presents Utterly Immoral, the story of his grandfather and a novel that brought scandal to the writer

Simon Keable-Elliott presents Utterly Immoral: Robert Keable and his scandalous novel, about the book written by his grandfather which was condemned by critics and became an international best seller.

Utterly Immoral traces Robert Keable’s experiences from Croydon to Basutoland and on to France as a WW1 chaplain to mistreated black labourers, the novel’s success, his loss of faith, an escape to Tahiti with his secret lover, and his final relationship with an island princess.

Event organised by the Friends of Carnegie Library

Register on Eventbrite for a link to view online.