You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Spellow Lane Library sees hundreds of authors donate backlists after riots destruction
Over 150 members of the books community – including Tracy Chevalier and Diana Beaumont – are donating backlist copies to the riot-hit Spellow Lane Library as part of crime writer Marnie Riches’ Reading Not Rioting campaign.
The Manchester-based crime writer decided to help the recently developed library after it was set on fire by rioters on 3rd August, during destructive far-right protests which have taken place across the country. Spellow Lane has also inspired a successful crowdfunder, which has now raised more than £120,000 in two days, but Riches wanted to use her writing network to focus specifically on the library’s stock.
Historical novelists Chevalier and Eve Chase are among those who have donated backlist copies to Reading Not Rioting, as well as crime writers C L Taylor, Elly Griffiths and Simon Toyne and literary agent Beaumont, who recently joined DHH.
“It started as a single tweet,” Riches told The Bookseller. “I saw that the library in Liverpool had been destroyed by far-right rioters and that it had recently been refurbished. I was so upset because I’m a northern writer and a writer of working class origin, so libraries are very important to me and I understand their role in the community.
“There’s also the issue of the library not having immediate stock to hand. These rioters have injured a community because a library is a place of social cohesion and learning and self-improvement and ordinary people have nothing to read.
“So I thought, I have a backlist of 20 books and I can send them a box and thought I’d send a shout-out [on X] to see who might want to join me, I have a good network as I’m a crime writer and used to be a children’s writer. I put a call out saying I was donating my entire backlist and the response has been huge. It’s the most popular tweet I’ve had, including 90,000 impressions and, crucially, almost 160 authors have already pledged to send books.”
Riches has been coordinating the administration and liaising with Liverpool Central Library, who will process the donations so that they are ready for lending and send them to Spellow Lane.
“There’s certainly going to be tens of thousands of pounds of stock sent in.. It’s been an enormous response,” she said. “In tandem with the crowdfunder it’s been a good way for the bookish community to express their outrage at the rioters and sympathy with the library and its readers.”
Riches, who also writes historical fiction under the pseudonym "Maggie Campbell", believes that the campaign also symbolises the importance of libraries and books overall. “Libraries are an absolutely essential part of the bookish ecosystem, and it strikes me that these people are rioting through ignorance,” she said. “Books are a cure for ignorance. People have been incredibly generous because we all recognise that libraries are a panacea to the disunity and hatred that we’re seeing.”
Liverpool councillor Ruth Bennett told The Bookseller of the council’s gratitude for the community’s contributions: “Over the last few days we have been contacted by an incredible number of people, organisations and businesses following the violence at the weekend that led to Spellow Hub and its library being seriously damaged,” the cabinet member for finances, resources and transformation said.
“From thousands of pounds of cash donations to replace destroyed books and IT equipment, to the use of building spaces so that community services can continue at a time when they are most needed, the thoughtfulness and generosity has been overwhelming. It shows the very best of the people of Liverpool and beyond.”
Bennett added: “Our library team is currently assessing what book stock and equipment will need to be replaced and a survey is also being conducted on the fabric of the building. Once this has been completed, we will be better placed to formally accept donations and offers of help. On behalf of the city, thank you for your support. It is deeply appreciated and deeply humbling.”
Any other authors, publishers or agents who wish to donate books should contact Riches on X by Friday 9th August on @Marnie_Riches.
