Lend me your years as I say thanks to library books
IT’S payday time again, even if it is almost a year overdue, like a library book.
That’s where the cash is coming from: my annual Public Lending Right account for the year ending June 30, 2023.
This is the money I get every time someone takes out one of my eight published books from the library, at the rate of 13.69p a pop.
It’s not a king’s ransom, but every little helps as a rather larger enterprise says.
For the year in question, I am in receipt of the princely sum (that’s enough royal figures of speech) of £13.69, which means one hundred borrowings. A century!
The detail is fascinating. Well, to me, anyway. My biography of Gordon Brown tops the list, with 69 takeouts. Next comes my book on the murdered Tory politician,
Airey Neave, with 10. Mandy, the very unauthorised book about Milord Mandelson, follows up with seven, while Northern Ireland’s John Hume and Madame Speaker, the life of Betty Boothroyd, score six.
Last, but not least, certainly not in his own estimation, my biography of Arthur Scargill, has been taken out twice, bringing in 27p. They must round up the pence, an easier task than rounding up the former National Miners’ Union leader. I’m pleasantly surprised that any of my books are still on library shelves. They were all written at least 20 years ago, about people not in the news today, except good old Gordon.
It’s even more surprising when you think how many libraries have been shut down since 2010 by Tory spending cuts. Our village library is run by volunteers.
This act of cultural vandalism will not be forgotten. They are anti-readers, hostile to spreading knowledge and understanding.
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