Dear editor,
Drawn to George Town Library by the Bookends Book Club that meet in the historic Old Library every month, I took a step further into the building, joined the George Town Library, and at the age of 85, rediscovered an old friend.
Libraries had been a good friend to me in my youth. Not as a child, when I couldn’t wait to use my pocket money to buy the Enid Blyton’s next Famous Five adventure or the Captain W.E. John’s Biggles stories – it was in those middle teen years of curiosity that a library opened my eyes to a wider world than the quiet country market town in England where I grew up. The centre of the square was remarkable for a 17th century building set on stone pillars. It had been the Old Market Hall, then the Town Hall but was now the public library.
I was at a boarding school, didn’t have friends at home, and during school holidays spent much of my time there. The librarian was a friendly girl down from university. She helped me with the formalities of joining up, issued me with my library card and made suggestions on how to find the kind of books I might like. I spent hours exploring the shelves looking for books that would interest me before taking out the maximum of three books a week.
I devoured fiction, reading anything and everything that caught my interest, lapping up H.G. Wells and the world of science fiction, but I was also drawn to the world of non-fiction and distant lands. Margaret Mead’s, ‘Coming of Age in Samoa’ and Thor Heyerdahl’s ‘The Kon-Tiki Expedition’ captured my imagination.
Margaret Mead was a cultural anthropologist whose studies of the people of Oceana portrayed an idyllic, non-Western society, free of much sexual restraint, in which adolescence was relatively easy. Thor Heyerdahl vividly described his adventure, crossing the Pacific Ocean on a balsa tree raft, trying to prove the migrations from South America to the Pacific Islands. I could never have imagined that, much later in my life, I would also sail a similar route to Polynesia, but perhaps it was those books that instilled the spirit of adventure that drew me into the South Pacific.
At the age of 18, I was living alone in London and working for a newspaper selling advertising space. Mornings were spent on the phone, but during the middle of the day, reps were meant to be out taking contacts to lunch. I had never been to a proper restaurant, had no idea where to go or how to go about it, and was far too nervous to try. Instead, I discovered Holborn Central Library, a splendid modern building five minutes’ walk from the office. I spent two hours reading there most days before returning to work with three books and appearing to have been out with clients. That ended when I was reprimanded for not claiming any expenses. But the Holborn Library had been a haven when I needed it.
And now I have rediscovered the joy that a library can bring in George Town. The George Town Public Library began in 1920 as a small room above the city’s old jail. A separate library building was finished in 1939, with a ceiling modeled after an inverted ship’s hull. While the library was opened to the public in 1940, it was not until 1980 that it was staffed with a trained, professional librarian.
The library was expanded in 2009 to include the splendid three-story Maples Wing, providing a children’s services area and public computers with internet access. Early in 2017, a renovation of the historic library building was completed to showcase local Caymanian history and culture.
In the modern Maples Wing, I found a quiet haven, a cultural oasis away from the hurly burly of central George Town, insulated by soundproof windows and the intrusion of mobile phones – a silent world to browse, read, study or write. It has an extensive book collection that caters for all ages and interests that can nurture a life-long love of reading.
Books are expensive to buy and ordering from Amazon can take four weeks. But the library is free. You can enjoy browsing the shelves for ideas, search the website for an author or book you like, and take out multiple books for up to three weeks. There are 40 parking spaces and friendly staff eager to help.
Other locations are in Bodden Town, East End, Cayman Brac, North Side and West Bay. Joining takes a few minutes before your library card is issued. They have resources and staff dedicated to encouraging children to love reading as I did as a child – a love that can become a lifetime of pleasure
Graham Morse
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