I’ve been a lover of libraries for longer than I can remember. Without them, my childhood reading habit would have been impossible to sustain, and as a parent and former teacher I believe they’re an essential public service – the evidence for the importance of a strong Reading for Pleasure habit in a child’s life is incontrovertible, and libraries are by far the best way of sustaining and nurturing that. Not that libraries are only for children; their value to the communities they serve is immeasurable, and it’s been heart-breaking to see them undervalued and downgraded over the last decade or so. 

Like so many of my colleagues, I feel certain that I wouldn’t be a writer now if not for libraries. They’ve helped to shape and broaden my reading, introduced me to most of the authors who have challenged and influenced my own work, and given me access to a broader range of literature than I could otherwise have discovered on my own. I owe them, and the people who work in them, an enormous debt.