Councillor Paul Valentine opened the Fair
The Secret Saxophone Quartet
Arts & Crafts
Friends & Neighbours
children decorated the tree
The Winter Fair – 2025
Banned Books Exhibit
The Friends put together an exhibit of books which have been banned at various times and in various places. Copies of the books were gathered from the library's collection and inside each one of them was put a note with background on when and where they have been banned and the sometimes strange reasons given for doing so. This exhibit was inspired by the Banned Books Project @Carnegie Mellon University and the American Library Association's Banned Book Week (just passed).
Some of the titles may surprise you.
- Acevedo, Elizabeth, The Poet X (by Chloe Black)
- Allende, Isabel. House of the Spirits (by Andrea Benatar)
- Bechdel, Alison. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic (by Grace LaCarte)
- Blume, Judy. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (by Liz Camele)
- Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 (by Artemis Carpenter)
- Burgess, Anthony. A Clockwork Orange (by Eliana Cohen)
- Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games (by Aggie Woodbury)
- Duncan, Lois. Killing Mr. Griffin (by Carley Johnson)
- Gaiman, Neil. Sandman (by Elizabeth Lathan)
- Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. The Sorrows of Young Werther (by Anyi Li)
- Heller, Joseph. Catch-22 (By Emily Getty)
- Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner (by Puja Dutta)
- Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World (by Sophie Zhang)
- Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird (by Kevin Lui)
- Keyes, Daniel. Flowers For Algernon (by Thomas Yager)
- Knowles, John. A Separate Peace (by Emma Cohron)
- L’engle, Madeline. A Wrinkle in Time (by Carolyn Ku)
- Lowry, Lois. The Giver (by Arabella Reece)
- Morrison, Toni. Beloved (by Talia Buksbazen)
- Morrison, Toni. Song of Solomon (by Cionna Sharpe)
- Paterson, Katherine. Bridge to Terabithia (by Olivia Karny)
- Picoult, Jodi. My Sister’s Keeper (by Nikita Sareen)
- Pullman, Phillip. His Dark Materials (by Oliva Carroll)
- Rhodes, Jewel Parker. Ghost Boys (by Charlie Botts)
- Rowell, Rainbow. Eleanor & Park (by Erica Choe)
- Rowling, JK. The Harry Potter Series (by Maddie Headrick)
- Rushdie, Salman The Satanic Verses (by Maria Hawthorne)
- Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye (by Kaylyn Clairmont)
- Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis (by Maximilian Adams)
- Sebold, Alice. The Lovely Bones (by Kailani Small)
- Silversteen, Shel. The Giving Tree (by Karla Bae)
- Vonnegut, Kurt. Breakfast of Champions (by Colin Cahill)
- Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse-Five (by Megan Henriksen)
- Walker, Alice. The Color Purple (by Isabel Joyce)
- Waugh, Evelyn. Brideshead Revisited (by Jennifer Bortner)
- Wilson, August. Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (by Juju Nieto)
In Between with Maud Blair
Tuesday evening, 7pm (6:30 for tea & cake) - 14 October
Maud Blair will discuss her book, making sense of her mixed identity in the midst of political unrest in 1950's Zimbabwe (Rhodesia).
What does it mean to grow up with an African mother and European father in racially segregated 1950s Rhodesia? For Maud Blair it meant being sent, aged four, to a ‘Coloured’ boarding school run by Christian nuns. It meant being taught in English rather than her native language, which she was encouraged to forget. It meant only seeing her family for two weeks during the school Christmas holiday, where Maud longed for the sense of belonging, she once had.
Labelled as neither African nor European, Maud tries to make sense of her mixed identity in the midst of political unrest and de facto apartheid, taking her to England via South Africa and back to post-independence Zimbabwe. The result is a strikingly original memoir that confronts privilege, prejudice and the place we call home.
Free admission.
Please register for a place on Eventbrite.
Organised by the Friends of Carnegie Library in cooperation with the librarians.
This event will be live-streamed from the Carnegie Library Facebook page where it will also be available to view for a limited period.
Bat Walk in Ruskin Park!
Friday evening at 7:30 pm - 12 September
Join us for a free Bat Walk around Ruskin Park. The walk will last an hour with an introductory talk by Dr Iain Boulton from Lambeth Council. Meet at the Middle Ferndene Road entrance (entrance next to the toilet block halfway along the road). All ages welcome, and bat detectors will be provided. Please wear comfortable clothes and bring torches if possible. (Dogs OK.)
Admission is free but you must book a ticket on Eventbrite (click here) because space is limited. Families are welcome, but please don't book more places than you can use, and if you can't make it please cancel your booking so others who may wish to attend can find a place.
Organised by the Friends of Carnegie Library and the Friends of Ruskin Park
Naomi Clifford
13 Park Lane
Tuesday evening, 9 September - 7 pm (6:30 for tea & cake)
At the library (also live-streamed)
On 29 April 1872 a group consisting of a 29-year-old Belgian cook and two English and two French detectives left the train discreetly at Herne Hill station. Marguerite Diblanc, who had been arrested in Paris and extradited, was then taken by cab to police cells in central London. Within weeks she was tried for her life at the Old Bailey. The victim was her employer Madame Riel, a French widow with a shady past, whose actress daughter was the mistress of the Third Earl of Lucan.
The murder had all the elements of a huge scandal, so why did the press fixate instead on the alleged perpetrator's physical appearance?
Historical crime novelist Naomi Clifford digs into theories about criminality and physiognomy and asks whether they played a part in the Diblanc's treatment in the popular press and in the criminal justice system.
13 Park Lane, her novel about the Diblanc case, is published by Bloodhound Books and is available online (multiple platforms) as a paperback, ebook and audiobook and can be ordered from bookshops.
Organised by the Friends of Carnegie Library, working with the Lambeth Library Service
Admission is free, but please register your interest on Eventbrite (this helps with planning).
If you can't make it to the the library, you can watch the livestream on the Carnegie Library Facebook page (no sign in needed). The recording will be available to view for a limited period (usually about 30 days)
Lest We Forget with Tessa Dunlop
Tuesday evening, 12 August - 7 pm (6:30 for tea & cakes)
Published to mark the eightieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War and spanning 2,000 years of our national history, Lest We Forget tells a monumental British story about the pride, pain and personalities involved in remembering war and peace across Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and Wales.
Delving into the individuals and inspirations behind 100 British monuments, acclaimed historian Tessa Dunlop travels the length and breadth of the country to learn more about the people and events which have been memorialised within our local communities.
In doing so, Tessa uncovers a unique story of national warring and national mourning, and reflects on how our memorial-studded country informs the narrative we tell about our history and ourselves.
Featuring powerful testimonies from a cast of military experts and veterans – including Bletchley Park’s Ruth Bourne, Bomber Command’s Colin Bell DFC, and HRH The Duke of Kent – this book serves as a timely reminder of the personal cost of war, the power of remembrance, and that freedom is not free.
ABOUT TESSA DUNLOP
Dr Tessa Dunlop is an award-winning broadcaster, historian, and author. Her previous books include Sunday Times best-selling The Century Girls, The Bletchley Girls, Army Girls and Elizabeth and Philip.
Tessa has featured in numerous historical and royal documentaries on the BBC, Channel 4 and Channel 5 and is co-host of the new Global podcast Where Politics meets History.
Organised by the Friends of Carnegie Library in cooperation with the Lambeth Library Service.
Please register your interest at Eventbrite, to help with planning.
This event will be live-streamed from the Carnegie Library Facebook page, where it will also be available for viewing for a limited period (usually at least 30 days).