Season’s Greetings, Blog-followers – and welcome to our traditional Yuletide and Advent catablog; it’s got links to open, an astonishing assortment of pop-ups, and some cracking novelties….        

Have a look...

Sing along, if you like...                                                         

Enjoy!...

Ready?...

Here we go, then...

Good King Wenceslas look'd out,

On the Feast of Stephen;

When the snow lay round about,

Deep, and crisp, and even:

Brightly shone the moon that night,

Though the frost was cruel,

When a poor man came in sight,

Gath'ring winter fuel.

2. "Hither page and stand by me,

If thou know'st it, telling,

Yonder peasant, who is he?

Where and what his dwelling?"

"Sire, he lives a good league hence.

Underneath the mountain;

Right against the forest fence,

By Saint Agnes' fountain."

3. "Bring me flesh, and bring me wine,

Bring me pine-logs hither:

Thou and I will see him dine,

When we bear them thither."

Page and monarch forth they went,

Forth they went together;

Through the rude winds wild lament,

And the bitter weather.

4. "Sire, the night is darker now,

And the wind blows stronger;

Fails my heart, I know now how,

I can go no longer."

"Mark my footsteps, good my page:

Tread thou in them boldly;

Thou shalt find the winter's rage

Freeze thy blood less coldly."

5. In his master's steps he trod,

Where the snow lay dinted;

Heat was in the very s*d

Which the saint had printed.

Therefore, Christian men, be sure,

Wealth or rank possessing,

Ye who now will bless the poor,

Shall yourselves find blessing.


And so, dear readers, all that remains is for me - on behalf of the Blogbrary Editorial Elf Board, Rudolph and our Reindeer Research Team, and all the Bex-L Pixies – to wish everyone a very happy, peaceful, and joyous Christmas….

TTFN

Stuck for Christmas gifts for stocking fillers?...


Never fear! ~ For this year, Bexley’s Local Studies Centre have it all sewn up…

“Dear Father Christmas…

This year, instead of just sweets and chocolates in my Christmas stocking, what we really, really, really want are Bexley Local History publications…





You know, things like books, maps, publications, cards and stuff…”

 

“Ho, ho, ho!

Then you’re in luck, my young friends; for this year, the team of jolly Elves at Bexley’s Local Studies Centre are arranging a very special Christmas Sale of all their finest produce…

It’s on Thursday 13th December at the Central Library in Bexleyheath between 11.00am and 4.00pm, and I’m assured that there will be lots to choose from, with many marvellous bargains to be had…

Ho, ho, ho, and TTFN!”                                             

You are cordially invited to…

Pictured: Crayford Library, circa 1956 (photo c Bexley Local Studies and Archives Centre)

~ AN INVITATION ~

Bexley Libraries request the pleasure of your company to join us at the commencement of the new Crayford Library at any time from the 17th November onwards.

Menu: a wide selection of books to suit all tastes and ages, magazines and newspapers, public network computers and internet access; Storytimes, Chaterbooks and Toddlertime sessions; Reading group meetings and the Friends of Crayford Library; Events and Activities to follow: Coffee will be served on the first Tuesday of each month.

And, for those of you who have not visited a Bexley Library for some considerable length of time -  kindly note -

Jacket and tie NOT required.

Carriages (By rail, or autobus services 96,428 or 492) daily.

No need to RSVP – all are very welcome!

TTFN

BIOGRAPHIES IN BEXLEY...
I spy ...with my little eye ... some biographies beginning with ... B


A brace of Bexley bookish thoughts occurred to me recently, dear readers (no small feat for – as you’ll appreciate – we chaps tend not to be able to think of more than one item at a time…)


Thought A) was that we've got a splendid collection of biographies about the Obamas, so now would be a good time to revisit them...
For, without any hint of political bias, nothing becomes so obsolete so rapidly as a biography of a recently defeated overseas politician - and, while we've got various books about Romney (Marsh) we've nothing about Romney (Mitt)...

Thought B) popped up shortly afterwards, whilst my extensive research team were gathering material regarding our library collection of new biographies - and, "my! - what a lot we've got!"...There are certainly some absolute corkers popping up on the catalogue, and - as one of my colleagues perceptively pointed out - lots of the best ones are about B's...

Well, this called for an investigation, without a doubt...And yes - how right they were. Here are some of their top biographical tips...(Sadly, they failed to fully complete the task, and you'll need to uncover the actual B's yourself, so please try...)

One brave B perished in a heroic Antarctic quest - (but did you know, he went to school in Sidcup?)

Another crafty  B also had some Bexley links: a close pal of our own William Morris, he was the greatest artist of his age...
  And then there's  a colleague of our own Len Goodman - but this one's a saucy Italian B

Or how about a feline, ginger B?...

Or some Tudor B's?

Or perhaps your tastes are more musical? Then here's a classic B, or - my own personal favourite "Get it on" and "Ride a white swan" - a groovy B

So - to sum up, dear readers  - we've lots of biographies beginning with 'B'...we've got biographies about the Obamas...but, obviously, if you want even more new biographies to get your (ahem) mitts on, then just try these: ACDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

TTFN

Trees please...
(Or, ashes to ashes?...)

If you go down to the woods today, dear readers, (as the popular song reminds us) you’re sure of a big surprise…


For, rather than cuddly teddy bears or ruggedly autumnal picnics, you’ll probably find an unpleasant case of Chalara fraxinea – ughhh



Do you share my woodland worries and ash-anxieties, dear readers? The news is certainly troubling about the state of our beloved ash tree population – apparently 90 % of Denmark’s ashes have this dreadful disease , and now it’s spreading here…

Ash trees are one of our unsung heroes in the countryside, not showy, not spectacular, just grand… As dear old Rudyard reminded us “Of all the trees that grow so fair, Old England to adorn, Greater are none beneath the Sun, Than Oak, and Ash, and Thorn”…and now they might be gorn (He didn’t actually write the last bit, obviously, as Mr. Kipling did make exceedingly good poems…)

So, is there any good news to be had?...Well, a little: Bexley are involved in the Trees to Treasure scheme, which will benefit local communities…

And Bexley Libraries (naturally) has some splendid tree-themed reading available at many (ahem) branches…root them out and leaf through them. (Try Wildwood by Roger Deakin – a very fine book).

So, there we have it, dear readers – now, how to conclude?...Perhaps, in this November week of Remembrance we should recall the words of the poet Alfred J Kilmer (who died in the Great War in 1918):

“I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree”…

“Poems are made by fools like me

But only God can make a tree”.

TTFN.

The strange case of Napoleon Bonaparte, his grave, and the Bexleyheath laundry link…

 Bonjour, cher readers!

This week, the Blogbrarian goes to Napoleonic France, the icy Russian steppe, a windblown St Helena in the mid Atlantic, and …er… Pincott Road in Bexleyheath.



Let’s start at the beginning: a gentleman asked our excellent Local Studies and Archives Centre if – since it was 200 years since Napoleon’s disastrous retreat from Moscow (think 1812 overture and all that) – Bexley had any local links to mark the occasion…



Well, those bright young things at Local Studies discovered that, whilst we don’t have any Napoleonic remains as such (Martello Towers, prison ships or military barracks and such like), what we did have was a …laundry!



Intrigued? … Well, it’s complicated, but the Bexleyheath and District Laundry in Pincott Road was linked to the Torbett family, who, in Napoleonic times owned land on St Helena – the tiny island where the defeated Emperor was exiled, and died in 1821…

As Napoleon’s tomb became THE place to visit on St Helena (which, unsurprisingly, held few other attractions for the passing tourist) the Torbetts were awarded government contracts for public access to the site; they also sold tourist trinkets, food, and “cool mountain spring water” and reaped the financial rewards.



Back in London, the story is that the Torbetts wisely invested their wealth in a Bexleyheath laundry business (and christened one of their family members ‘Reginald Napoleon Torbett’). How splendid!



So there you have it…Bexley’s first and grandest laundry business owes everything to Napoleon’s windswept tomb. And not a lot of people know that!



Meanwhile, if you want to learn more about Napoleon’s sad, lonely life of exile, then try Julia Blackburn’s splendid book.

And if you want to learn more about Bexleyheath’s first laundry (or anything else historical) then you know where to come. BLSAC



And here my story ends…A sad but true story, a grave story, but – at least – a clean story.

Au revoir, for now.

BRING UP THE BOOTY!




Never mind the Booker…

What about our Booty?...

(That’s our Book of the Year, in case you were wondering…)





Well, dear readers…

Hot off the press, as we ‘biblio-newshounds’ are always keen to be, let us draw your attention to the winner of the coveted Booker Prize for Fiction…



Hilary Mantel’s ‘Bring up the Bodies’…A splendid book, and a worthy winner…



However, dear Blog-followers, in my quest to bring you not only Booker books, but also Best Books (as chosen by readers much like yourselves) I feel compelled to remind you of very our own prize award...THE BOOK OF THE YEAR!



(Sadly, unlike the Booker prize, we are unable to offer the winner a cheque for £50,000…Nor will it be judged by Mr Dan Stevens, star of Downton Abbey… However, we remain comforted in the knowledge that ours will be a great book, too … and one chosen by library users and book lovers – people, in fact, like you!)



So, while you’re Bringing Up the Bodies, remember … Don’t forget our BOOTY!



Want to join in? Then the comments box is all yours…



TTFN

“Inspired” by saints and Shovells?...


Crayford, Cloudesley, and chalk dust…



Well, dear readers, what fun we had last weekend!...


Whizzing through Crayford on the trusty old 492 bus, purely by chance, I noted a sign saying that St Paulinus church was holding an ‘Open Day…with tower visits’ …

Now, I do enjoy pottering about an old medieval church, but I’m sorry to say that, despite knowing that St Paulinus was a fine old building set in a picturesque setting, I’d never ventured in there before…Well, being of a questing and adventurous bent, I’m not one to turn down the chance of a tower visit – so in I went, and – wowzers! – it was superb, if something of a tight squeeze and a dustily adventurous clamber to the top. And the view from the summit of the tower! Wonderful…

All Crayford lay below us, and you could physically sense the history of the town, and the church itself.

(Books can do this for you, too, remember, and don’t usually involve getting one’s trousers dusty…Similarly, a visit to Bexley’s splendid Local Studies and Archives Centre will furnish you with a wealth of local knowledge and historical background, without the dangers of bruised limbs and a chalky backside…)

The whole experience was - (WARNING - PUN ALERT AHEAD) - “inspiring” (See William Golding’s wonderful historical novel about a cathedral tower for a similar, if grander, experience…)

And the inside of the church, too, was quite splendid…well worth a visit. Particularly fine was the tomb of Elizabeth Shovell, the wife of the venerable naval hero and splendidly named, Sir Cloudesley Shovell, one of Crayford’s finest, but a chap who met a sticky end in the Scillies. (And, as I pondered the magnificent memorial, how many of Crayford’s newborns today, I wondered sadly, are given the nomenclature ‘Cloudesley’?..)

So, dear readers – to sum up: what have we learned from this week’s Blogbrary-broadcast?

• That the 492 bus timetable is available ‘online’

• That Saint Paulinus Church in Crayford is an architectural gem, well worth a visit.

• That chalk dust from medieval church towers clings very tenaciously to elderly librarian’s trousers.

• And that, despite a plethora of books on babies names, the name ‘Cloudesley’ obdurately refuses to find cult status – except in Crayford.



TTFN

The name’s Bond…Bilbo Bond”…

The spy with the golden, hairy feet…

 

Confused?...
I am!

Forgive me, dear readers, but I’m becoming even more confused than usual…


This month, we mark two significant birthdays (50th and 75th) of two cultural giants (007’s film debut, and The Hobbit’s first publication) but - for the life of me - I can’t remember which one’s which!

The more I try to pin them down, the more confused I become…

Hence, my mixed up, juxtaposed and tangled state of mind…

Who wrote what?...Was it JRR Fleming, or Ian Tolkien?

(Luckily we’ve got some splendid books about both chaps, so that’s a relief)

And what were the books?

 I know that I’ve read (and enjoyed) many of them, but which was which?...

The Man with the Golden Gandalf?...
From The Shire with love?...
Tom Bombadil never dies?...
Gold-ringfinger?...
Thunderbalrog?...

Can any reader help me?... It’s important, as I fear that next time I may have to review Fifty Shades of the Darling Buds of Gray, and I doubt that Pop Larkin’s reputation could survive such close scrutiny…

If you can help, just use the comments box below.

And thank-you…very much.

Nessers: you can find them in the Scandinavian chiller section, next to the Nesbos…

Well, dear readers…now that the warm glow of London 2012 is fading…

Now that the chillier nights are drawing in...

Now that the shops are tempting us back to their autumn specials…



The Blogbrarian’s thoughts are, I’m afraid, turning to Crime…to cold crime in fact, and some chilly Scandinavian Norse rivals to Morse…


Devotees of the ‘Nordic Noir’ genre will already know of Henning Mankell and Stieg Larsson… Jo Nesbo, too, is a best-seller (hardly surprising, in truth, since both his parents were Librarians!)…

But many more new names are appearing, too…(try one, get one free!) – there’s Asa Larsson (no relation), Anne Holt, Karin Fossum, Johan Theorin, Liza Marklund or Camilla Lackberg….And that's just the - ahem - tip of the iceberg...

But can I tempt you, dear readers, to try two of my very own ‘special offers’?...
Because this week, still pursuing my retailing analogy, “The Blogbrarian’s gone to Iceland” for a hearty helping of Arnaldur Indridason (although be warned, dear readers, for Indidason’s hero – Inspector Erlendur – likes nothing more than snacking on cold boiled sheep’s head as his culinary treat…).

So, while we’re passing the Scandinavian chiller shelves, why not try another of my own favourites? Hakan Nesser’s detective Van Veeteren is a much more civilised literary and dining companion…Yes! - Nessers – you’ll find them next to the Nesbos in all good libraries!



Enjoy, dear readers…You might want second helpings…(but remember, some of the Scandinavian specials might leave those of you with delicate constitutions feeling a teeny bit queasy…)

TTFN