News and Events in libraries
Whitton Library Natural History Talk
The River Crane: Habitats and Inhabitants.
Andy Willmore, Community Project Officer for the London Wildlife Trust will talk about his work in the Crane Valley and the animals and plants in this fascinating natural habitat on our doorstep.
Thursday 26 January 7.00pm Whitton Library
Tickets are £1.00. To book contact your local library, call 0208 734 3343 or book online.
Octavia Hill
A remarkable Victorian story, from rags to recognition, from genteel poverty to influence. Delia Paton will use Octavia Hill’s own words to tell you the story. Octavia Hill was born in Wisbech in 1838, the daughter of a miller; she rose to such influence that she was one of the cofounders of the National Trust.
Friday 3 February 2012 1:00pm Ham Library
This is a free event for further information call 020 8734 3354.
Twickenham Library Community Project
Do you have memories of Twickenham Library? Did you use it as a child? We would love to hear from you!
Following the launch of the Twickenham Library Community Project, in 2011, we will be holding another open afternoon. Why not come along and take tea with us and tell us about your memories of Twickenham Library from across the decades and help us build up a picture of this wonderful centre of our community.
Friday 10 February 2.30pm Twickenham Library
Free event, booking not required
For more information please contact Twickenham Library on 0208 734 3340 or email k.hacker@richmond.gov.uk.
Building houses for workers in Victorian and Edwardian London
Historian Martin Stilwell comes to Twickenham library to give a presentation on the origins of working class housing in London during the time of Victoria and Edward VII.
Saturday 11 February 3.00 - 4.00pm Twickenham Library
Tickets £2 including refreshments for further information please contact Twickenham Library and ask to speak to Kim or Maris. To book call 0208 734 3340 or book online.
Get in the Know Week 6-11 February
Library resources are not just on the shelves Get in the know week is designed for those who want to know how to access resources online.
Finding Business Information
Learn to use the library's online resources and the internet to find business information. All sessions are free but advance booking is essential.
Monday 6 Feb 14:30 Book now
Searching Newspaper Archives
Learn to search the library's online newspaper resources to find information. Sessions are free but advance booking is essential.
Monday 6 Feb 10:00 Book now
Finding Health Information
Learn to use the library's online resources and the internet to find health information. Sessions are free but advance booking is essential.
Tuesday 7 Feb 10:00 Book now
Information on Art and Music Online
Learn to use the library's online resources and the internet to find information on art and music. Sessions are free but advance booking is essential.
Tuesday 7 Feb 14:30 Book now
Finding Biographical Information
Learn to use the library's online resources and the internet to find Biographical Information. Sessions are free but advance booking is essential.
Thursday 9 Feb 14:30 Book now
Search Online Reference Resources
Learn to use the library's online resources and the internet to find Reference Information. Sessions are free but advance booking is essential.
Thursday 9 Feb 10:00 Book now
Family History Online
Learn to use the library's online resources to find Family History online. Sessions are free but advance booking is essential.
Friday 10 Feb 14:30 Book now
Finding Legal Information
Learn to use the library's online resources and the internet to find Legal Information. Sessions are free but advance booking is essential.
Friday 10 Feb 10:00 Book now
Download e-Books and e-Audio Books
Learn to use the library's online resources to download e-Books and e-Audio Books. Sessions are free but advance booking is essential.
Saturday 11 Feb 10:00 Book now
Saturday 11 Feb 14:30 Book now
Nothing Matters: A talk and debate with Ronald Green
Why is nothing so important in art? Why did the Church hate nothing? How did something come from nothing? Is nothing something? Ronald Green has an M.A. in Linguistics with post graduate studies in linguistics and philosophy at Oxford University. He is a university lecturer and ESL teacher, and has lectured and given workshops in Europe, North and South America and the Middle East on linguistics, ESL and the use of the Internet in education. Ronald Green blogs at www.nothing-matters.org and is based in Israel.
Thursday 23 February 6.30pm to 8.00pm Richmond Library
Tickets £2 including refreshments to book please contact your local library, telephone 0208 734 3330 or book online.
Memories are made of these!
The popularity of television programmes such as ‘Who do you think you are’ encourages interest in our roots. Why not create a memoir of your life? John Nunneley, author and local resident, has found a simple and easy way.
Tuesday 28 February 1pm-2pm Ham Library
This is a free event.
An evening with Mary Lawson
Bestselling author of the novels Crow Lake and The Other Side of the Bridge Mary Lawson’s first novel, Crow Lake, was admired by critics and adored by readers all over the world; translated into 19 languages and published in 21 countries, also winning the McKitterick Prize. It was a New York Times bestseller and spent 75 weeks on the bestseller lists in her native Canada. Her second, The Other Side of the Bridge, is a compelling and vividly evoked story of two generations in the small 1930s Canadian town of Struan and its harsh rural hinterland. It was selected for Richard and Judy’s Summer Reads 2007 and long listed for the Man Booker Prize 2006.
Mary Lawson was born and brought up in a farming community in Ontario, a distant relative of L. M.Montgomery, author of Anne of Green Gables. Mary came to England in 1968, is married with two grown-up sons and lives in Kingston-upon-Thames.
Thursday 15 March 7.00pm to 8.00pm Hampton Library
Tickets £2.00 including refreshments, to book please contact your local library call 020 8734 3347 or visit book online.
Local History Talk Ham House
The self sufficient estate, past and present.
Samantha Green, the Garden and Countryside Manager at Ham House will present a talk that examines how the Ham estate has produced food in the past, how it was stored and the new ventures they have in the current kitchen garden.
An absolute must for anyone who has an interest in local history and that of country houses.
Saturday 17 March 3.00-4.00pm Twickenham Library
Tickets are £2 including refreshments, to book visit your local library. call 0208 734 3340 or book online.
Turner in Twickenham
Twickenham Library welcomes art historian, Catherine Parry-Wingfield to Twickenham Library to talk about the painter J.M.W Turner, his link with Twickenham and his former home, Sandycombe Lodge.
Catherine specialises in the history of art from the 18th and 19th centuries and was also the founder chairman of the Friends of Turner’s House, which supports the Sandycombe Lodge Trust.
A tour will be arranged to Sandycombe Lodge which can be booked on the day of the lecture.
Saturday 14 April 3.00 -4.00pm Twickenham Library
Tickets £2 including refreshments for further information please contact Twickenham Library and ask to speak to Kim or Maris. Telephone 0208 734 3340 or book online.
City Read London is a campaign to spread a love of books and reading to the widest possible audience throughout our capital. By choosing one book Oliver Twist for the whole city to read, discuss and debate, we can bring Londoners together in a series of special events, across London and online. City Read London will launch on 2 April 2012.
For a full list of events celebrating the 200th Birthday of Charles Dickens visit www.dickens2012.org, the following events are being held accross Richmond Upon Thames.
Dickensian Family Workshop
This is a free event for children over 7 accompanied by a parent/carer.
Bring your children along for an interactive trail through Victorian life, involving books from Richmond Library and items from the Museum of Richmond’s handling collection.
Afterwards, you can try your hand at making a Victorian bonnet or top hat!
Friday 13 April 2.00pm Richmond Library.
Booking from February.
A Literary Walk and Talk for Families
Join a guided walk and talk with your family and learn about the writers and poets of Richmond. Meet at 2.00pm outside Richmond Library, Little Green TW9 1QL. The walk finishes with refreshments inside Richmond Library at 3.30pm
Saturday 14 April meet outside Richmond Library.
Tickets free including refreshments but booking is essential
Booking from February.
Dickens’ Writing and the Railways:Fact or Fiction
Charles Dickens’ personal history is wrapped up with his involvement in the Staplehurst Accident on 9 June 1865. While travelling home in a boat train with his mistress and her mother, a ganger’s error while repairing a bridge caused the middle section of the train to career off the tracks. Forty passengers died, yet Dickens and his companions survived by being in a front first class carriage. Nevertheless, this event caused Dickens considerable trauma and possibly contributed to his death in 1870.
Yet, Dickens’ association with the railways goes far beyond the accident and he commented frequently on the British railway network in its early years. Whilst he campaigned after 1865 for the improvement of railway safety through his magazine All Year Round, he frequently criticised other aspects of the railway industry in his writings, most notably in Mugby Junction, where railway station ‘Refreshment Rooms’ came in for particular criticism.
However, while Dickens’ representations of the railways have been analysed as literature, the question as to whether they represent an accurate depiction of the British railway industry before 1870 has been largely ignored. This talk explores the aspects of the early Victorian railways that Dickens described and considers whether what he wrote was true to reality.
Tuesday 17 April 6.30-7.30pm Kew Library .
Booking from February.
“What the Dickens!” A literary quiz night at Twickenham Library
Join in the fun at Twickenham Library as it commemorates the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Dickens with a Dickens themed quiz night.
Come as a team of 6 or join a team on the night.
Wednesday 18 April 7.00pm Twickenham Library.
Booking is essential. Tickets £8 including “pie and mash with liquor” or a vegetarian option
Booking from February.
Charles Dickens: The Man Behind the Novels
Charles Dickens is the definitive illustrated guide to the man and his works. It follows Dickens from early childhood, including his time spent as a child labourer, and looks at how he became the greatest celebrity of his age – and how he still remains recognized as one of England’s greatest celebrities, even in the twenty-first century. The book also takes an intimate look at what he was like as a husband, a father, a friend and an employer; at his longing to be an actor, at his fascination with detective work and at his travels: across North America, during a year spent living in Italy and his regular trips to France. Alongside Dickens himself, you will meet his fascinating family and his astonishing circle of friends – and will discover when and how life and real-life personalities were imitated in Dickens’ art. The cast of characters in this book embraces an incredible array of famous – and occasionally infamous – Victorians.
As the great great great granddaughter of Charles and Catherine Dickens, Lucinda Dickens Hawksley has grown up with an interest in her family history. For the last decade she has been a Patron of the Charles Dickens Museum in London. Join us as Lucinda, author, art historian and public speaker, with a special interest in literature and art from the 19th and early 20th centuries and in the history of London, comes to Richmond Library to talk about her latest book in celebration of City Read London.
Tuesday 24 April 7.00pm Richmond Library.
Booking from February.
The Somnambulist
The Somnambulist by Essie Fox is a gothic mystery with much of the action taking place in Victorian East London – in a grand garden square, and the threatening docks, as well as Wilton’s music hall; a crumbling but magical theatre still in existence today. With many illustrations to give a sense of time and place, Essie’s talk will discuss the places, people, inspirations and themes that occur in her historical novel, with ample opportunity for any questions afterwards.
The Somnambulist has been selected as one of the books to be reviewed on the Channel Four’s TV book club, with Essie Fox’s episode being screened on February 12th 2012.
Wednesday 25 April 6.00 – 7.00pm Teddington Library.
Booking from February.
Tom-all-alone’s: An evening with author Lynn Shepherd
London 1850. Tom-All-Alone’s begins in the fog and filth of Victorian London. Like Bleak House, it’s a story about secrets both desperately hidden and ruthlessly unearthed.
Lynn Shepherd’s new book is a gripping Victorian murder mystery, in which the young detective Charles Maddox is drawn ever deeper into a sinister investigation where nothing is what it seems to be. Readers don’t need to know Bleak House to enjoy unravelling the mystery at the heart of Tom-All-Alone’s, though fans of Dickens will also find it a fascinating and creative response to the events and themes of Dickens’ great masterpiece. His characters populate the landscape of Tom-All-Alone’s, some as leading protagonists, and some as mere bystanders. Through Charles Maddox’s eyes we see these people and places from a new angle, and find answers to questions left tantalisingly unanswered.
This is ‘Dickens but darker’, depicting a grim underside of Victorian life that Dickens could only hint at.
Thursday 26 April 7.00pm – 8.00pm Hampton Library.
Lynn Shepherd worked in the City for five years before moving to Guinness PLC where she created the Guinness ‘Water of Life’ environmental and humanitarian programme, which has won a number of high-profile awards, as well as bringing clean drinking water to over two million people in Africa in the last two years alone. This is Lynn’s second book, she is also the author of Murder at Mansfield Park.
Booking from February.
Library mailing list
Join our library mailing list for regular updates and news of forthcoming events.
Children's events
For details of other library events for children and teens, please see the Young People's Library Service news and events page.
Storytime
All libraries hold a storytime for the under-5s once a week; see the Storytime page for details.
Tiny Teddies
Most libraries also hold monthly bounce and rhyme sessions for pre-school children, called Tiny Teddies. These sessions are great fun and include songs, rhyme and stories. All these activities are free of charge.