Library Characters

A New History of Love has, among other things,  given me the opportunity to show the reality of work in academic libraries and the diversity of those who work there. Here are a few of the characters who make the book what it is. I hope fellow librarians will find them true to life.

Bel (Isobel) is a subject librarian at the University of South Gloucestershire. She sees her job as a bit of  a comfort zone, until a chance encounter throws up the email address of her former lover.

Nicola Hedley is Faculty Librarian and Bel’s boss. A single mother and a career woman, Bel is in awe of her, until life events prove that Nicola is vulnerable too.

Nigel Moult, deeply unsexy and totally dependable, is a librarian’s librarian. A philosopher and polymath, in some way’s he’s the hero of the hour (though he’d be the last one to say so).

Nick Jolly is a bibliophile who works in a research library. Diffident but eager to help,  he’s probably more comfortable with books than with people.

Alec Guthrie had an affair with Isobel when they were both in their twenties.  A teacher and researcher, Alec is a typical (?) library user.  Bel’s reappearance catches him at a weak moment; but then he probably has a lot of those!

I hope one day you’ll be able to meet these people along with doughty Julia, long-suffering Miles, and Ric (Italian origins?) who is somehow involved in everything.

Thanks for visiting. Comments from real life librarians particularly welcome!