Black History Month Read-along: Francis Williams
Portrait of Francis Williams, circa 1745. This image courtesy of Wikimedia; original portrait is held by the V&A. Welcome to a special read-along in celebration of Black History Month throughout…
Richmond Read-along: Shakespeare and St George
Today (23rd April) marks both St George's Day and the anniversary of Shakespeare's death. It's also widely believed to be Shakespeare's birthday, although we don't know for certain what day…
Why do I need the library?
Do you use your library? While we have plenty of dedicated users, we know there are people out there who don't think the library is for them. In this post,…
Pulp Fiction: sex sells
Welcome to our new series on pulp fiction - the literature, not the film. To end LGBTQ+ History Month, today we're looking at gay, bisexual, trans, and particularly lesbian pulps.…
Librarians Recommend 2020
It's a new year and we've been looking back on all the books we read in 2020. With online literature festivals (including Richmond LitFest), a huge September-October publishing boom, a…
Banned Books Week 2020
This week is Banned Books Week 2020! Banned Books Week is an initiative spearheaded by the American Library Association (ALA) that occurs every year to highlight the importance of the…
Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1835-1915) – [Local History Notes: 21]
One of the most popular and prolific novelists of her day and the virtual founder of a new school of ‘sensational’ fiction, Miss Mary Elizabeth Braddon was born at Frith…
Charles Dickens and Richmond – [Local History Notes: 20]
Estella in Great Expectations (1861) states: ‘Our lesson is that there are two Richmonds, one in Surrey and one in Yorkshire, and that mine is the Surrey Richmond.' As early…
R D Blackmore (1825-1900) – [Local History Notes: 19]
R D Blackmore Richard Doddridge Blackmore was born on 7 June 1825 in Longworth, Berkshire, where his father, John Blackmore, was Curate-in-charge of the parish. Only a few months after…
Richmond Read-along 100
Welcome to the 100th day of the Richmond Read-along! This will be the last of our daily Read-alongs; we hope you enjoyed reading them as much as we enjoyed producing…