Author: Katie Halsey
Stirling’s Historic Libraries
Here at the University of Stirling, we have been thinking about ways in which we might contribute to the celebrations for the 900th anniversary of Stirling burgh, and a colleague asked me to talk about Stirling’s historic libraries. Regular readers of this blog will know that none of the libraries featured in the Books and […]
Forgotten Bestsellers: George-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon’s Histoire Naturelle (1749-88)
In our series on Forgotten Bestsellers, we have tended so far to focus on works of fiction, which I fear may perhaps have given loyal readers a slightly false impression of the genres most often borrowed from our libraries. In fact, although fiction does become very popular in the early nineteenth century, it is not […]
Five Go On A Writing Retreat
Last week several members of the Books and Borrowing team (Matt, Katie, Josh, Cleo and Maxine) attended the University of Stirling’s annual Eighteenth-Century Writing Group Writing Retreat in the lovely surroundings of Alexander House, Auchterarder. We all used the time to make significant progress on writing projects. Collectively, the participants managed a whopping 60,000 words […]
Libraries, Lives and Legacies Research Festival: Event Report – Part Two (Stirling)
Following on from last week’s blog, in which I reported on the first part of our Libraries Lives and Legacies Research Festival, held in Liverpool and online, this week’s blog will focus on the second of our events, the conference on Reading and Book Circulation 1650-1850, held at the Iris Murdoch Building of the University […]
Libraries, Lives and Legacies Research Festival: Event Report – Part One (Liverpool and Online)
Regular readers of this blog will know that over the past few months we had been gearing up for our Research Festival on the theme of Libraries, Lives and Legacies, run in partnership with the C18th Libraries Online project at the University of Liverpool. From 13th to 19th April, therefore, we enjoyed an intense week […]
A Comic Poem Inspired by the Books and Borrowing Project
This week, we are delighted to introduce the last of our Highly Commended entries to the Books and Borrowing Creative Writing Competition: Cara Morsello’s poem ‘Chambers’ Library – A Dangerous Place’ © Cara Morsello. Please do not publish or reproduce this poem without the author’s permission. Cara Morsello Royal is a recovering lawyer. Since her […]
A Short Poem Inspired by the Leighton Library’s Water Drinkers
This week, we are happy to present another work in our Highly Commended series, which features creative work inspired by the Books and Borrowing materials. Gillian Mellor’s poem, ‘Extracts from the Leighton Library’, was inspired by the Water Drinker’s Register from the Leighton Library in Dunblane. Our judging panel enjoyed Gillian’s poem, which evokes the […]
More New Creative Work Inspired by Books and Borrowing Materials
This week, we are happy to present Moira McPartlin’s story ‘The Missionary’. Moira’s story uses names from our Borrowers’ Registers. Moira has been writing for over twenty-five years. Her debut novel The Incomers, published by Fledgling Press in 2012, was shortlisted for the Saltire Society First Book of the Year Award. Over the next seven […]
More Creative Work Inspired by the Books and Borrowing Project
This week, we’re happy to present the second of our Highly Commended Creative Writing Competition entries – i.e. works inspired by Books and Borrowing project materials. This week it is a short story, written by Virginia Crow. Virginia is an award-winning historical fiction author who grew up in Orkney, and now lives in rural Caithness. […]
Introducing Exciting New Creative Work Inspired by Material From the Books and Borrowing Project
In this week’s blog, we are happy to introduce the first of a new series of posts, which will introduce our readers to some of the Highly Commended entries in our Creative Writing competition. We enjoyed reading the entries for this competition so much that we have decided to share more of them than originally […]