Molesey Then and Now - a journey of discovery

September 26th is the date for the next author event at Molesey Library, when we shall welcome Jenny Wood - chairman of Molesey’s own Local History Society - to tell us about how the Society went about bringing to publication its new book ‘Molesey Then And Now’. 

Having only recently hit the bookshelves, the book has already sold out its first print run but further copies are expected shortly and will be available to purchase on the night.

“Molesey Then And Now’ provides a unique insight into the development of Molesey over the years through a fascinating collection of Then and Now photographs.  Some of the original Then photographs were already in the Society’s archive, others were forthcoming through appeals to Society members and others. Then it was a matter of arranging for all the equivalent Now photographs to be taken, making it possible for the book to chart all the many changes which have taken place in our local environment in recent times.

As Jenny says, this was a major undertaking for the Society and the whole production process was a steep learning curve!  So, if you would like to find out more about how a dedicated team of local enthusiasts made it happen, come along to the Library and hear Jenny’s illustrated talk, which will begin at 7.30 pm. Tickets cost £5 - which includes refreshments - and can be obtained from Molesey Library.
 

Author Terri Fleming on daring to take on Jane Austen

This year marks 200 years since the birth of Jane Austen, so it's only fitting that Molesey Library will be receiving a visit from a lady who is following in the great author's footsteps.
Terri Fleming has penned a sequel to Austen's most famous work Pride and Prejudice - it is titled Perception and is the story of the unmarried Bennet sisters, Mary and Kitty, a few years after their sisters marry.
She will be speaking about the book and how it came to be when she visits Molesey Library on Tuesday 21 November, 7.15pm. Tickets will be available at the next author event on 26 September, in the library thereafter and also on the door.
Terri was born in Tasmania "surrounded by every luxury of landscape" but limited access to the wider world in the days before the internet. Books were her joy and refuge. She adds: "If I was naughty, the greatest threat was to be denied a visit to the bookmobile."
Very early she determined to be a writer and after a career in copywriting and seeing the world she settled in England with her husband.
She said the following about the plot of her novel: "The Bennet sisters remain at Longbourn with their parents and few prospects. Mrs Bennet has become increasingly determined to find a husband for at least one of her girls. She spies her chance when a wealthy bachelor returns to his home near Meryton.
"Mary has little desire for marriage and Kitty is still tempted by old habits. As new people enter their world, the two sisters find themselves questioning themselves and the world around them. Can either sister overcome perception?"
 

Friends discuss author events at last committee meeting

The Friends of Molesey Library met on 5th September for the first time since the summer. Pauline Morozgalska, the chair, welcomed Silvana Marenghi who has helped with Friday coffee mornings run by the Friends and has decided to join the committee.
Author events coordinator, John Coope, said a speaker that had been planned for the 26 September had fallen through and efforts to find a replacement had been unsuccessful (though on the upside a couple said they are willing to come to Molesey as part of next year's programme). Thankfully Jenny Wood, chair of the Molesey Local History Society, has agreed to fill the slot with a talk about Molesey Then and Now – a book researched and written by members of the history society over a five year period. The book has been very well received in Molesey and has already sold out its first print run, so we're hopeful of a good turn out.
Vice chair Steve Bax is working on a publicity poster and will drum up publicity. Meanwhile John is fixing up details for our 21 November event where Terri Fleming, author of the Pride and Prejudice sequel ‘Perception’ will visit.
Treasurer Liz Cooper updated on the status of the bank account and it was agreed that the Friends will spend some of that money on carpet cleaning for the library and refurbishing or replacing the sofas that are getting a bit tatty. We are also keen to have the garden benches repainted.
The Friday coffee and cake mornings run by the Friends are still popular, but may have to end in future if we can't find a few more volunteers to help run things. It would be a 2-3 hours and involve helping to set-up, serve and pack away. Anyone reading this who's interested can post below or email MoleseySteve@gmail.com. The Friends' next meeting is 7th November.
 

Best-selling international author to visit Molesey Library

Mary Lawson

We are delighted to announce that leading Canadian author Mary Lawson will be coming to Molesey Library on Tuesday April 25 to talk about her best-selling books and to give us her thoughts on “Writing Fiction – A Ridiculous  Occupation?"

Although born in Canada, Mary is actually now a local resident. She came to England for a holiday after graduating from McGill University in Montreal. When she ran out of money, she had to find a job, then fell in love with a colleague and married him. The couple now have two sons and live in Kingston upon Thames.



Mary began by writing short stories but it wasn’t until she set one of those stories in Canada and was advised by an editor to turn it into a novel that she finally found her voice and discovered what she wanted to write about.


Crow Lake, her first novel, published when Mary was 55, sold in 25 countries. It spent 75 weeks on the bestseller list in Canada, won the Amazon.ca First Novel Award, was a New York Times bestseller and was chosen as a Book of the Year by the New York Times, The Sunday Times, The Washington Post and The Globe and Mail.

The Other Sideof the Bridge, her second novel, was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize and was a Richard and Judy Summer Read in the UK. Her latest novel, Road Ends, has been recently published to critical acclaim and is a finalist for the Folio Prize.

We are very much looking forward to welcoming Mary, who has a very strong local following.  Do come along and join us for what promises to be a fascinating talk.  Tickets cost £5 - which includes a glass of wine or soft drink - and can be obtained from Molesey Library.

Finding Tipperary Mary, a book inspired by search for long-lost mum

Barbara Fisher and Phyllis Whitsell

Finding Tipperary Mary is the title of our next ‘meet the author’ evening at Molesey Library on Tuesday 28th February. It is also the title of a book, which is now a bestseller here and in Canada, and was featured in the Times bestseller list for several weeks.

It is a remarkable true story about a nurse from Birmingham called Phyllis Whitsell who tracked down the alcoholic mother he gave her up for adoption as a baby and the moving account of what happened next. Phyllis was encouraged to tell her story by her good friend Barbara Fisher, who ghost wrote the book. They planned to self-publish but Mirror Books stepped in and snapped it up, resulting in nationwide publicity and TV appearances for Phyllis, as well as interviews on radio. The film rights have also been sold.

Barbara lives in West London for many years with her husband Mike. They have a daughter, son-in-law, and a grandcat! She was a teacher for 15 years and entered full-time journalism at the suggestion of an editor who liked the weekly schools’ page she wrote for the Uxbridge Gazette. She spent 20 years working for the paper and is now freelance, but still writes a weekly column. Barbara was made an honorary fellow of Brunel University in 2005 for her community reporting.

She is also writing her own book, Tales from an Old Hack: memoir of a local reporter. Tickets to the Finding Tipperary Mary talk (28th Feb, 7.15pm) are available from the library priced £5.

Naval disaster inspires fascinating talk by admiral at Molesey Library

Rear Admiral Kit Layman

An epic tale of murder, mutiny and man’s struggle for survival against the elements, was brought to life at Molesey Library by Rear Admiral Kit Layman.
The distinguished Royal Navy man – who commanded HMS Invincible and HMS Argonaut during the Falklands War, and frequently accompanies the Queen – was the guest speaker at the Friends of Molesey Library’s sixth AGM, on the evening of Tuesday 24th January 2017.
After being introduced by our author events organiser, John Coope, the retired admiral took his place at the lectern and regaled the audience with a good natured and thoroughly fascinating account of the ill-fated last voyage of the HMS Wager, which was wrecked off the south coast of Chile in 1741.
Admiral Layman explained that he had inherited a book about the Wager disaster written by John Byron, grandfather of the famous poet and one of the survivors of the wreck. He described the book as “very readable, perceptive and fair to all sides,” adding: “I read the book rubbing my eyes with disbelief at the story that unfolds.” That story has been retold for the modern reader by Rear Admiral Layman in his book: The Wager Disaster, Mayhem, Mutiny and Murder in the South Seas – of which he signed copies at Molesey on the night.
The 28 gun ship with her crew of 140 men (plus Chelsea pensioners) had put to see on a mission to harass and disrupt Spanish interests in South America (Britain being at war with Spain at the time) but suffered a catalogue of disasters. It was damaged by a huge storm, lost the rest of the fleet, her captain died, men were stricken with scurvy and dysentery and the ship was smashed to bits on the rocks at the aptly named Gulf of Sorrows.
The Admiral said: “As the ship broke up, discipline broke down.” The men were surrounded by harsh and inhospitable terrain and they had no food or shelter (though a large amount of alcohol washed ashore, perhaps not a good thing in the circumstances). They were stuck there for five months, while the new and unpopular captain, David Cheap, drew up plans for them to extend the long boat and use it to sail north and capture a Spanish ship.
Trouble was, said the Admiral, that in those days if a ship wrecked then the Navy was no longer obliged to pay the sailors, and knowing they were no longer employed they ceased to feel obliged to follow the captain. When Cheap shot a rebellious man in the face it was a turning point. 81 men left in smaller boats in a mutiny led by the gunner Mr Bulkley and sailed for 111 days until they reached the Rio Grande. Admiral Layman was full of admiration.

While they made it back to England, 8 of their number were cast away – we’re not sure why – and they went on to be captured by a tribe of Indians, paired up with the chiefs captured Spanish slave women (told to breed more slaves) but eventually made it home in a prisoner transfer.

Meanwhile Captain Cheap, Byron and those left behind (numbering about 20) lost more and more of their number in ill-fated attempts to escape and eventually travelled in land with the help of a native. Finally they got home, five years after they left, to a court martial, to apportion blame for the loss of the ship and not the mutiny (luckily for Bulkley). Captain Cheap, who returned home half dead, married an heiress and retired to Scotland, while Byron became a commodore and founded a British settlement in the Falklands. He continued to have bad luck at sea and earned the nickname “Bad Weather Jack”.

The Admiral showed photos of the Falklands and also where parts of the Wager, like the canons, have been salvaged and ended up. The ship wreck itself has in recent years been found by Chilean archaeologists. Finally he took questions from the audience - responding to one that he thought it unlikely, though not impossible, that the Royal Navy could mutiny again - and joined guests for a glass of wine.

 

'Use Molesey Library or lose it' is message at Friends AGM

Thank you to all who attended the sixth Friends of Molesey Library Annual General Meeting on Tuesday 24^th January 2016. For everyone else here is a recap of what happened.
Chairman Pauline Morozgalska introduced and thanked members of the committee for their hard work and giving generously of their time throughout the year. She gave a short overview of the main events during 2016 as follows:

The weekly Friday Coffee Morning is firmly embedded in the Library timetable and a growing number of people appreciate the warm welcome and friendly faces.  Our dedicated team of volunteers who serve and provide the delicious homemade cakes are wonderful.

The Knit and Natter sessions take place on the third Tuesday afternoon of each month. The group either knit items for themselves or knit for their chosen charity. Friends have created a great atmosphere where experienced knitters share their skills with beginners and the inexperienced.

The Friends support the Library Book Club. Clare Newman liaises with Marian Gibbons to ensure that there is an interesting selection of books to discuss and co-ordinates the group. 

Generally, funds are raised through our Author Events and Coffee Mornings so that we can buy things for our library that are not funded by the Library Service.

We were not involved in a presentation ceremony for the children’s summer reading challenge. This was quite simply because there were no medals to award as SCC decided to just give a certificate – a great shame especially as uptake last summer was down on previous years.

John Coope arranged a fascinating programme of author events over the last year. We had police psychologist-turned novelist Dr John Marzillier, a talk on white Russians by VanoraBennett, and in April Susie Holliday and Louise Voss talked about crime writing and where their ideas come from. In September there was a full house for Hampton Court curator Tracy Borman’s talk on the Tudors, and in November local author Van Louizos whisked the audience back in time to WW2 and his experiences of Greece under the Nazis. More events are arranged for 2017.

The Chair introduced Kelly Sanai Badwal Surrey library Service, who thanked the Friends for purchasing vital equipment for the library (such garden benches and children’s chairs) and explained that, while visits to Molesey Library declined 1% in 2016 the number of books borrowed remained the same. She said November had been a particularly good month.

Steve Bax introduced the committee members and asked proposers and seconders for everyone to continue in their respective roles for another year. Pauline was reappointed chairman. She quoted The Reading Agency who claim there are great benefits to health and wellbeing from reading. “It’s said to help relax you, sharpen your mind, increase your satisfaction levels and even improve your relationships with others!” The message remains as ever, that if, as a community we don’t use this wonderful free facility we will lose it.   

Finally, Treasurer Liz Cooper highlighted the success of the Friends-run coffee and cake mornings (every Friday at the library) that brought in £1507 last year (all the cakes are baked by local volunteers!). The author events netted £485, but we had to spend £310 on repairs to the library sign after it was vandalised. In total the Friends have £3886.63 in the bank.