Stop press: Vanora Bennett author evening postponed

The Author Event planned for next Tuesday has been postponed as Vanora Bennett has been admitted to hospital. Those who had already bought tickets were notified immediately by phone. It is a shame as I think many of us were really looking forward to the event especially as our June event was also postponed because of the uncertainty with staffing at the library.

Our next event will be on Tuesday 25th November so please put the date on your calendar and you will receive further details in due course.

The Friends started a KNIT and NATTER session this month. These sessions are planned for the third Tuesday afternoon each month from 2.00 onwards. The first event was very enjoyable. Everyone is welcome so do come along or if you are unable to come yourself, please spread the word. Next session is Tuesday 20th October 2015.

A reminder that the drop-in Coffee Mornings every Friday are very popular and a bargain - just £1.00 for coffee/tea & cake!  Do come along if you can.

Please remember that we can always use volunteers to help at these events if you have a little time to spare. We look forward to seeing you soon.

Kind regards,

Pauline Morozgalska

Chair of the Friends

Next Author event: Vanora Bennett: an obsession with Russia

When the autumn nights start to draw in, why not head over to Molesey Library for one of our popular Author Events?

The first of the new series will be held on Tuesday September 29 at 7.30pm and will feature Vanora Bennett, who admits to having ‘an obsession with Russia’.

Vanora started her career as a journalist, working in Paris, Cambodia, and parts of Africa and finally landing in the country which stopped being the Soviet Union three months after she arrived. She spent much of the early 1990s in smoky taxis in the Caucasus mountains, covering a series of small post-Soviet conflicts that built up to the war in Chechnya. As an afterthought, she started writing books.

She now has eight books to her name, including two novels set in Russia or about Russians - The White Russian and Midnight in St Petersburg. She has also written two works of non-fiction about Russia - Crying Wolf, about the start of the post-Soviet war in Chechnya, and The Taste of Dreams: An Obsession with Russia and Caviar, which is a travelogue through the wilder parts of newly capitalist Russia in the 1990s.

When she comes to the Library, Vanora will look at the fate of Russia’s White Emigrés after the 1917 Revolution in a talk entitled Down & Out in Paris & London.  Signed copies of her books will be available to purchase on the night.

Tickets cost £5 – which includes a glass of wine or soft drink – and they can be purchased at Molesey Library. Alternatively, you can send a cheque (made payable to Friends of Molesey Library) with a stamped addressed envelope, to Author Event, Molesey Library, The Forum, Walton Road, West Molesey, KT8 2HZ.