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Friends of Highgate Library NEWSLETTER JUNE 2010

FRIENDS IN DEED
Bert Humberstone

Bert’ s death in March means the loss of an active local citizen and a great supporter of Highgate Library. The excellent CNJ obituary reminded us of his wide interests and achievements during his long life in Camden. Largely self-educated, he loved theatre, ballet, books and poetry and was involved in all neighbourhood interests and events. He loved our library and The Friends of Highgate Library would not exist without him.
I first met Bert in 1994 when he was trying to start FOHL Bert moved quickly. After a small inaugural meeting, he wrote its constitution and within a few months, he had got the library listed building status. The library roof leaked, the decoration was a mess. Bert was determined to remedy this. He fixed a meeting with the Director of Leisure and I, as an almost fundless treasurer, went with him. Bert stressed the library's history and the Friends' intention to hold a reception for local people, Camden Councillors and other worthies in October 19% on its 90th birthday. To my amazement, we came away with a gift of £100 towards the party and a promise to repair the roof and redecorate - the latter completed only days before the event Bert had put the library on the map. He remained our Chairman for 12 years and under his capable and enthusiastic leadership the Friends flourished
Bert was an almost daily visitor to the library. On his, death, the staff put up a small display "Our Bert" showing their respect and affection and a truly touching tribute. Our President Roger Loyd Pack, Acting Chairman Fabian Watkinson and other friends want to provide a permanent tribute. We hope this will be a carved inscription on the bench in the small garden which FOHL created at the library front and which Glenda Jackson, MP opened in 2005.

Enid Evans

Oliver Cox

We were fortunate in having Oliver Cox, who died recently, as a Friend He and Jean joined FOHL at the start; it was typical of them both to get involved in volunteer projects and good causes. One of these was Lauderdale House, the subject of his talk at one of our early meetings.
Oliver was an eminent architect well known for post-war social housing. He
was a gifted artist and many of us enjoy his collages of local buildings. A
framed! copy of the one he did of the library is there now. From this, he let us
produce 1,000 postcards, so helping both the library and FOHL to raise funds.
We appreciated his freely given time, expertise and judgement When FOHL
organised the conversion of the weed-covered library frontage into a small
garden, he drew up the many plans which were needed for planning
permission. Enid Evans

NEWS FROM ACTING- CHAIRMAN: Fabian Watkinson

A very warm welcome to our new library staff with whom we all look forward to forging a close and productive relationship. Joanna Birch, our new manager, (official title is Customer Services Officer) worked at West Hampstead Library for 15 years whilst her deputy, Gloria Lavery, comes form Swiss Cottage. Both are keen to continue the good work carried out by previous staff, particularly Diane Bowman's excellent; work with Brookfield School and the Children's Library. This included children's reading groups, class visits and the thriving under-Fives Group which meets every Tuesday morning. There will be more new faces arriving shortly at the Grow Your Library programme involves moving staff around the borough's libraries.
We all know that massive cuts are in the offing, so please borrow books. It is easy to reserve books. Because when it comes to the crunch it is numbers that will matter. The more our library is used, the safer it is.
I would like to add my own personal tribute to both Bert Humberstone and Oliver Cox. They were both remarkable men who I feel privileged to have known and who were an inspiration to us all.

BROOKFIELD SCHOOL: Reading Progress Prize Giving
In 2002, FOHL decided to give a book prize to the pupil in each class judged to have made most progress in reading. The school appreciates this and now nine years later, we continue to keep this link with the school. We will enjoy helping the prizewinners to choose their books at the Owl Bookshop and some of the committee, on your behalf, will attend the prize-giving early in July.

FORTHCOMING EVENT
Thursday, 9 September, 7.30pm
Dan Richardson
From Rough Guides to Dark Satire
Local author, professional travel writer and novelist, Dan has had; a colourful background working at various jobs from sailor to artist After meeting the Rough Guides founder, he went on to write the first Rough Guide to Eastern Europe and had articles in the Guardian, the Times and other national papers. He can cover the secrets of guide-book writing, Eastern Europe under communism, Moscow during a revolution and/or being an aid worker in Albania during the Kosovo war. His experiences led to his first novel -GOG - An End of Time Mystery, which is an apocalyptic whodunnit An interesting, neat coincidence; Dan is the grandson of writer, Stella Gibbons, who also gave a talk many years ago at the library.

RECENT EVENTS
Dan Carrier
A Local Press
Thursday 25 March
After a brisk AGM, the evening was devoted to our speaker, Dan Carrier, a journalist on the Camden New Journal. We are lucky to get the CNJ, our free, award-winning paper, every Thursday. Dan covered its history and his own varied experiences on many topics including interviews, films and obituaries A short spell on a national paper convinced: him of the greater value and pleasure of working locally in a neighbourhood he knows well. No celebrity nonsense; the joy of covering football! The audience appreciated Dan's enthusiasm and humour and a lively question and answer session followed.
Caitlin Davies Fact Into Fiction Thursday 20 May
Have you ever wondered what a baby farmer is? Caitlin's latest novel entitled The Ghost of Lily Painter tells us. It is about two women who bought and sold babies. Both were hanged in 1903 in Holoway Prison. Caitlin has published several books including a recent one, called Friends Like Us. It is about four women, friends for forty years. Some of its background is local including the Holly Lodge Estate and Brookfield School.
The Place of Reeds is a memoir of the twelve years she spent in Botswana. She spoke movingly about her life there. Married to a Botswanan and with a child, she was a journalist At one stage she was arrested 'for causing fear and alarm' and later suffered serious assault
Mostly, she talked about getting and following her ideas and how often later events would occur which were eerily related to her subject. In her own words-From Fiction into Fact

MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL: thank you from Linda Lefevre
Thank you to all those members who renewed their annual subscriptions so promptly. The AGM in March is the signal that subscriptions are due and I am grateful that so many of you responded without further reminders.If you have forgotten, it is not too late!
We are grateful for your many generous donations. Our interesting speakers give their time but we do pay Camden for the use of the library for our meetings. Otherwise our costs are minimal, just the production of our newsletter and the refreshments at meetings for which you also add donations. We also provide the prizes for reading progress at Brookfield School each summer. Any outstanding subscriptions (now £5, concessions £1) for this year can be sent to me, the Hon Treasurer at 35, Dartmouth Park Road NW5 1SU or left at the library in a sealed addressed envelope. Cheques payable to FOHL please. Why not encourage your friends and neighbours to join us? Our library is important to the community and provides many services apart from books. There are audio books, CDs, DVDs, computer access and helpful advice from the staff. There are also newspapers to browse and events for children. As well as joining the library, joining the Friends is another way of supporting it Members receive this quarterly newsletter with library news, advance notice of meetings and other FOHL activities. Membership forms are on the FOHL notice board.

TWO LIBRARY CHANGES
Charges: there is an increase in some charges - fines, reservations etc. Check at the
counter; we hope there will be a new information leaflet soon
Telephone You can no longer telephone the library directly. There is now one
central number for the whole service - it is 7974 5752. Unfortunately it is now an
automated answer service. Good luck,

FRIENDS OF HIGHGATE LIBRARY
c/o Highgate Library, Chester Road, N19 SDH

President Roger Lloyd Pack

Acting Chairman: Fabian Watkinson
Hon. Secretary: Margot Kafno Hon.
Treasurer Linda Lefevre
Committee: Sarah Carrier, Natalie Doyle, Andy Edwards, Enid Evans, Alice Gutkind, Adrian Oliver, Sally Thompson

Patrons: Hunter Davies and June Rose