Today - Monday 26th February - I had planned to start the week with a day in the Palace Green Library. However, I didn't get there. As I said in my posting for the previous day I was in the library, I got through the boxes of papers that had been retrieved or me quicker than I'd anticipated and so I now need to wait while the librarians found out what else can be retrieved.
(A quick explanation for why I started mentioning Monday's date but am posting this several days later: I wrote my account of what I did on Monday when I got back in that evening; then Iyped it up on Friday 1st March and added the photos and captions today, Saturday 2nd...)
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| This photo, along with those below, was taken on my visit to the Ouseburn Valley. Please see the end for information... |
So I spent the morning where I'm staying in Newcastle liaising via email with the librarians, whose support has been superb, while looking at the online catalogue to identify what I'd most like to look at next. There is a lot of material that looks fascinating, including in a classical-related sense, and I hope that some of it will be in a suitable state for it to be brought out...
As well planning for the remaining time in the library - just two weeks - I have left with the Collection, I wrote to accept an invitation to talk about my findings next week, on 7th March, at the Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies. This will be a raw, work-in-progress talk that gives me an opportunity to share what I have found with colleagues who have been supportive and welcoming. I'm soon going to write my abstract for the talk...
But before I get to that task, I'll share my afternoon's adventure. Just yesterday, I found out that there is a National Centre for Children's Books - called Seven Stories - in Newcastle and today I went to find it - and what a place I found, and what a location it's in, in the lovely Ouseburn Valley. I'd never heard of the Ouseburn either...
As for Seven Stories, in spaces created to entice young people - e.g. low doors to ensure and little alcoves full of things to do - I found myself in a museum that is a site of curiosity where I saw things including Enid Blyton's typewriter, an exhibition of the work of the illustrator Martin Brown, including illustrations for Horrible Histories and several classical monsters, not least, Medusa on whom I'm about to begin a project.
I ended the visit in the lively cafe/bookshop looking over the Ouseburn very thankful for this experience and hoping to return, including to consult their archives.
The photos: 'Ancient Place' street art mural in an arch along Lime Street; the entrance to Seven Stories; heading up Lime Street towards Seven Stories; a nice corner of the cafe.
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