Go into any of our 6 public libraries and you will little evidence of avid readers: users are found slumped in chairs, gently dozing or gazing vacantly into the distance.
Deplorable is the rubbish on the shelves… long lines of Danielle Steel, Wilbur Smith, and other pulp fiction makers. Oh, and masses of obscure writers opining on ‘diversity’ and other modish subjects.
The few great classical writers on our library shelves rub shoulders with dreadful pot boilers. When suggested to one bored staff member that serious writers be given a section of their own, the reply was, ‘we do it alphabetically’. This is why you will find Stendhal and Steel sitting together!
Brompton Library bucks the mediocrity of others: it has an attempt at a ‘classics section’ and seems heavily used by young families.
The Dame has no idea what our libraries cost taxpayers, but we are getting lousy value. Running them alongside Westminster means we have Westminster Council tastes imposed upon us.
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