From the Library with Love - podcast
It's Kate Thompson here, author of The Little Wartime Library and upcoming Wartime Book Club.
Wonderful, transformative things happen when you set foot in a library. In 2019 I uncovered the true story of a forgotten Underground library, built along the tracks of Bethnal Green Tube tunnel during the Blitz. As stories go, it was irresistible and the result was, The Little Wartime Library, my seventh novel.
Bethnal Green Public Library, where the novel is set, was 100 years old in October 2022, and to celebrate the centenary of this grand old lady, funded by library philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, I set myself the challenge of interviewing 100 library workers. Speaking with one library worker for every year this library has been serving its community seemed a good way to mark this auspicious occasion. Because who better to explain the worth of a hundred-year-old library, than librarians themselves!
I wanted to explore the enduring value of libraries and reading. I quickly realised that librarians have the best stories.
My research led me to librarians with over fifty years of experience, to the impressive women who manage libraries in prisons and schools, to those in remote Scottish islands. From poetry libraries overlooking the wide sweep of the Thames, to the 16th century Shakespeare’s Library in Stratford, via the small but mighty Leadhills Miners’ Library.
This podcast was born out of those eye-opening conversations, because as Denise from Tower Hamlets Library told me: 'If you want to see the world, don't join the Army, become a librarian!'
I’ll also be talking to international bestselling authors and some remarkable wartime women. This is my way of celebrating and documenting the remarkable stories I have found whilst researching my books.
Interviews up already:
📚 100-year-old Bletchley Park Codebreaker Betty Webb on keeping her wartime secrets.
📚 Bestselling author of The Beekeeper of Aleppo, Christy Lefteri on the importance of writing what you feel.
📚 New York Times bestselling author Madeline Martin on underground libraries and clandestine book clubs.
TO COME...
🎙October 2nd - 8th is Libraries Week. I'll be releasing an episode every day with some incredible librarians, including the librarian who has kept everything she has ever found in a returned library book.
🎙November. 'I was born in a concentration camp' A powerful interview with 78-year-old Eva Clarke, who told me '‘You don’t know what you can withstand until you are put to the test.’
🎙December marks the 85th anniversary of the Kindertransport scheme, 97-year-old Gabriele Keeaghanbravely shares the harrowing moment she was forced to leave behind her family and flee Nazi occupied Vienna.
🎙National Letter Writing Day, I met the woman who collects forgotten letters from flea markets and told me, ‘Letters capture the essence of what it is to be living through history. In attics, and drawers and shoe boxes under beds there are hundreds of stories waiting to be told.’
Plus SO so many more I just can't wait to release. This is a labour of love.
Here is the link to my podcast site, https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/from-the-library-with-love/id1705546837
About the creator
Kate Thompson an award-winning journalist, ghostwriterand novelist who has spent the past two decades in the UK mass market and book publishing industry.
Over the past eight years Kate has written eleven fiction and non-fiction titles, three of which have made the Sunday Times top ten bestseller list.
www.facebook.com/KateThompsonAuthor
TWITTER / X @katethompson3680
INSTAGRAM @katethompsonauthor
Review
‘From the Library With Love’ is a brilliant podcast! I absolutely loved the episode that I listened to - ‘Vanishing Voices of Wartime London’ which listens to people's stories from the East End of London. I am kind of an oral history nerd. At university I did a dissertation on women’s experience between the wars and it all through the medium of interviews like those on the podcast. I also interviewed my Gran for her memories on the war so in a way this podcast brought back memories for myself as well!
The host of the podcast Kate shares with us three interviews with people who lived through WWII in the East End of London - Dot, Alan and Sally. Dot reminded me a lot of my own Gran. She talks about the support network of the communities and the numerous Aunties who looked out for one another. The Aunties of the East End were resilient and a product of their environment. To Dot family is everything! I loved the stories about her Nana ‘Old Boots’ and her gatecrashing weddings and funerals! Hearing about Dot being buried alive in an Anderson shelter was harrowing.
Alan’s interview was recorded by his grandson and his memories of the Blitz were poignant and harrowing. What I found interesting was both Dot and Alan had negative memories of being evacuated, with hosts that were cruel to them! Dot’s mum was a force to be reckoned with for sure.
Sally shares her experiences of being a young Jewish girl during the war. There were a lot of Black Shirts where she lived and her time at school was not easy. But Sally was my favourite interviewee and her poem ‘Small Cogs’ was authentic and moving.
I am such an advocate about how history should be formed from the voices and the people of that time. Not just the leaders of society but those who lived in normal communities, who really lived through these events. This podcast encapsulates this and I can't wait for future episodes!
