The Friends Chess Club is back at Carnegie Library!
Every Saturday afternoon, 2:00 - 4:30
All ages - all welcome.
Chess Club!
Young Women with Author Jessica Moor
At the library, Tuesday 14 February - 7pm to 8:30pm (or online, livestream)
Presented by Friends of Carnegie Library
When Emily meets the enigmatic and dazzling actress Tamsin, her life changes.
Tamsin is the friend Emily has always longed for: beautiful, fun, intelligent, mysterious - and soon Emily is neglecting her previous life to bask in her glow. But Tamsin has been hiding a secret about her past, something that threatens to unravel everything . . .
Young Women is a razor-sharp novel that slices to the heart of our most important relationships and asks how complicit we all are in this world built for men.
Jessica Moor studied English at Cambridge before completing a Creative Writing MA at Manchester University. Her debut novel Keeper was published in 2020 to rave reviews and critical acclaim. Jessica Moor was selected as one of the Observer's debut novelists of 2020, and her debut, Keeper was chosen by the Sunday Times, Independent and Cosmopolitan as one of their top debuts of the year. Keeper was nominated for the Desmond Elliott Prize and an Edgar Award.
Young Women is her second novel.
Follow Jessica on Twitter @jessicammoor
To attend online, via livestream, please register at Eventbrite
Congratulations, Zoey Dixon MBE!
Our very own librarian, Zoey Dixon was awarded an MBE – Member of the Order of the British Empire – in the New Year Honours list.
We are so grateful for her service to the Carnegie Library and so pleased that she has been honoured with this award.
Zoey has been a leading light in making libraries more accessible, both before and during Covid-19, in her development role at Lambeth Libraries. She has been a champion for diversity and inclusion, both within the borough and beyond.
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Her role as chair of the Youth Libraries Group for London and judging national book prizes, as well as her activity in Lambeth Libraries and on social media, make her a voice for change.
Cllr Donatus Anyanwu, Cabinet Member for Stronger Communities, Leisure and Sports, said: “I’m delighted for Zoey and delighted that her important work is being celebrated on the national stage in this way. Lambeth Libraries provide an incredible service to our diverse communities and Zoey has played such an important role in that.
“We face challenging times, but our library service has proved adaptable, inspiring and current throughout, providing incredible support to local people, and Zoey has played a key role in those efforts. I join our residents in applauding her commitment to the borough, and for being such a committed public servant.”
In 2020 Zoey Dixon was also named as a ‘Rising Star’ by The Bookseller – the UK’s main trade journal for the book world. The awards are set up to highlight forward-thinking individuals from all sectors of publishing whose actions have caught the eye.
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In the same year, she was also awarded the Youth Libraries Group Librarian of the Year for her work in improving library services for children and young people.
Chatterbooks!
Book club for children - ages 7 to 11 (hosted by the librarians)
Last Monday of every month, 4 pm to 5 pm - just drop in! meet new friends!
This month Carnegie Library will be re-starting Chatterbooks, a book club for 7-11 year-olds. It will take place on the last Monday of each month at 4-5pm. There is no set text or need to book; children can drop in, meet new friends and talk about what they're currently reading, have read or want to read.
Never Tell Anyone You’re Jewish: My Family, the Holocaust and the Aftermath
Maria Chamberlain will discuss her moving book at the Library on Tuesday evening, 10 January 2023 - 7pm to 8:30pm
Maria Chamberlain’s book, Never Tell Anyone You’re Jewish is a story of two assimilated Jewish families in Nazi-occupied Poland in the eye of the Holocaust. The two families were joined by marriage after the war and Maria was born soon after. Not surprisingly her mother initially urged her to hide her Jewishness. Later, in old age, she relented, recognising that testimonies make history, and that the lives of those who perished deserve to be celebrated. The material in the book is compiled from recounted memories of the survivors, unfinished memoirs, letters, photographs, and historical archives.
There are uplifting stories: her great uncle's survival on Schindler's List, and her charismatic, heel-clicking maternal grandfather's survival hiding in plain sight in a quasi-Nazi organisation. Maria documents the kindness of strangers, miraculous escapes, courage, guile, strength, and resilience. Her parents adopted different strategies for survival, and afterwards responded very differently to the traumas they had suffered.
The last part of the book covers Maria's early life in Stalinist Poland and her family's emigration to Edinburgh, where she and her parents led fulfilled lives as scientists. Despite this, the traumas continue to ripple through her life and following generations.
Organised by the Friends of Carnegie Library.
Please register for free ticket with eventbrite and for link to online livestream
(tickets not necessary to attend in-person - walk-ins fine)
Fabulosa! The Story of Polari, Britain’s Secret Gay Language
Author Paul Baker will be at the Carnegie library on Tuesday, 13 December - 7pm to 8:30pm
Polari was a form of language adopted chiefly by gay men in the first half of the 20th century as a form of self-protection and a way of expressing humour. For many speakers it consisted of a small vocabulary although some people used it in a way that began to approach a full language. In the 1960s it was popularized in the BBC radio comedy series Round the Horne. But in the 1970s it started to be abandoned.
This book traces Polari’s historical roots and describes its linguistic nuts and bolts. It then outlines the ways that it was used by its speakers, the reasons for its decline into obscurity and the ways that aspects of the language have been rediscovered and repurposed in recent decades.
Relying on a wide range of interviews and textual sources, Professor Paul Baker tells the story of British LGBTQ+ history through the lens of Polari as well as reflecting on the ups and downs of researching this fascinating form of language over the last 25 years.
Event organised by the Friends of Carnegie Library
Attend at the library - or register with eventbrite for livestream.