Review of Events 2008

Thursday 10th July

Our evening at Fulbourn Village Library with Rebecca Stott was a great success. She told us how research into Newton’s time at Trinity College had uncovered several mysterious deaths around the time he was made a Fellow of the College, and she was attempting to write this up in some way. She had wanted to write a novel for some time, and the plot of Ghostwalk had come to her “in the back of a taxi”! The 17th century mysteries were being investigated by a young historian in Cambridge, who became involved in a present-day murder plot in the City.

The book had taken two years to complete, and she had spent the first year getting to know 17th century Cambridge in detail. Now the book was translated into 12 languages, and she had just completed a book tour in the USA for her publishers.

Rebecca answered questions from the audience of 50, covering a wide range of topics, after which discussion continued with refreshments. It was a most enjoyable evening, and our thanks go to Rebecca for her interesting talk, and to the Arts Forum for help in staging the event. To see photos please click here.

Saturday 12th July

The ArtsBus turned up at the Library at 9.30am, and was soon ready for making books, and reading books. Several older children used the bus as a craft workroom for the first hour, then around 10 under-5s and their parents had a very enjoyable story-reading session in the seating area at the back of the bus. We’d like to thank the Mari Gomori Trust and Stagecoach for thinking up and producing the ArtsBus! To see photos please click here.

PAST EVENTS

Family History Evening: this was well attended. Don't forget you can access Ancestry.co.uk free in the library. All we ask is that you become a member of the library, which is also free!

Fulbourn Library and The Arts Extravaganza 2007

On Saturday 7 July Anne Worthington from the Library Services read stories and presented this summer’s Reading Challenge.  Unfortunately support was sparse, but the children who attended enjoyed it very much indeed.

On Sunday the Creative Writing Workshop was a great success.  Seven of us with very little writing experience sat down wondering what to expect.  Jenny O’Brien quickly got us involved.   I think I can safely say that, apart from the two children who with the confidence of youth knew they could do it, the rest of us were surprised at how within a five minute time limit we had all created stories which would have done credit to Roald Dahl. For a photo of Jenny and photos of the work which was produced at the workshop please click here.  

On Thursday 12 July we were very lucky to welcome Jill Paton Walsh to the library to talk on ‘Being a Writer’.  She outlined a career of more than forty years, writing children’s books, literary novels and crime fiction, in a talk that considered each particular genre, but also the hard work and professionalism needed to be an author.  Following the talk she answered questions from the floor before joining us for wine and refreshments.  It was a truly fascinating evening. For photos taken after Jill's talk, please click here.

As a member of the Library Committee I would like to thank Kathy Attmore for all her hard work overseeing and coordinating the event, and Gill Aslett for her inspired detective work resulting in the Creative Writing Workshop and the evening with Jill Paton Walsh.

Fourth Birthday

This November we celebrate our Fourth Birthday since taking over the running of the Library. We have 40 volunteers and have managed to man (and woman) each session – with only a few panics over the holiday period. At the end of last year, just as we thought things were running smoothly, the future of the Library was doubtful due to the School's decision to cease managing the Old School Building. However, we have successfully negotiated an extension until December 2008 when hopefully the new Library will be ready. There is still much to be decided but with the support of the village we hope by 2009 all will be well.

We are very grateful for the donations of good quality books which always impress visitors to the Library. Cambridgeshire Libraries continue to supply us with 100 books each month so there is always something new to borrow.

Jill Woolley