by Katie Lennon | Oct 21, 2016 | Acquisitions, Morrab Library
We’re excited about this recent addition to our shelves, gifted by our fantastic library president -a signed copy of his latest work.
From one of our leading novelists and historians comes a breathtakingly vivid novel that recalls the three voyages Captain Cook made to the southern hemisphere, culminating in the last, fateful expedition on which he was brutally murdered.
Click here to read an interview with A.N Wilson about the book and the chance discovery which spurred his research and sparked it’s creation.
“Wilson is a great biographer and a fine novelist, and his book is as much a factual account of Forster’s life as a piece of historical fiction. He acknowledges that readers of Forster’s Voyage “will know that I have not invented very much in this novel”. Yet this is one of those astonishing lives that requires little in the way of embellishment. Wilson’s achievement is to impart a restrained imaginative power that makes its extremes seem credible.” –Alfred Hickling, The Guardian
The book is available to borrow now &if any members who read the book would like to contribute their thoughts or comments please do message us at enquiries@morrablibrary.org.uk as we would love to share them here on our blog.
by Katie Lennon | Oct 7, 2016 | Uncategorized
All welcome
Please note that over the winter our regular Friday tours at 2pm will still be available most weeks but by appointment -if you would like to attend do contact us in advance. Tours are taken by Linda Camidge.
by Katie Lennon | Aug 4, 2016 | Acquisitions
The play script just arrived in the library!
It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn’t much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband and father of three school-age children.
While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.
Click here for a ten year old’s review in The Independent
&here for a review (spoiler warning!) in The Telegraph
by Katie Lennon | Jul 29, 2016 | Acquisitions
For the complete list, click here.
by Katie Lennon | Jul 21, 2016 | Morrab Library
Our most recent display, created by brilliant volunteer Sheila Bradley, is inspired by Russia and consists of books from the library collection -all of which are available to loan. Here are just some of the titles on display, reviews about them, and a couple of photographs taken in the library.
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Book covers & library photograph as background
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Book covers & library photograph as background
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Morrab Library photographs
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I almost don’t want to share this, it feels like lost treasure -the photographs were only discovered in Paris in 1987- beautiful &illuminating early colour photography, intimate images of a writer, his family, his friends, alongside expansive landscapes -all capturing the time and place in which he lived. Because of copyright I can’t share the photographs themselves -come, take it out of the display, and look for yourself.
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Review excerpt & book cover, Morrab Library photographs in background
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Photo of Elena Shvarts
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Morrab Library photographs -Nabokov’s Butterflies is edited and annotated by Brian Boyd & Robert Michael Pyle, published by Penguin
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Review excerpt
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Review excerpt & background image from TV series of the book
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Review excerpt
You can find the display in the glass cabinet in the main reception room. We create a new display with a different topic every month or so -it’s always worth a look in case something that was hidden when it was on the shelves catches your eye.
Click on title for full reviews – Odessa, Letters to Véra, Russia: A Journey to the Heart of a Land and its People, The Penguin Book of Russian Poetry
by Katie Lennon | Jul 9, 2016 | Acquisitions, Uncategorized
New fiction & non-fiction titles that came into the library earlier this year..
For the full list of our April new additions, click here.
by Tom Goskar | May 20, 2016 | Photographic Archive
In March we blogged about our progress with the Stanley Opie archaeology collection. It is a wonderful collection of 1001 photographs, mainly glass negatives, covering archaeological and cultural subjects across Cornwall from the late 1920s to late 1930s. The project was kindly funded by Cornwall Heritage Trust.
We are pleased to announce that we have now digitised the entire collection and it is available to browse and search.
All of the negatives have been conserved and repackaged, going from rows like this:
To digitised files with the negatives packaged like this:
The conservation work on the negatives and their new packaging will ensure that each photograph will be in the best possible condition for many years to come. Each negative is now within its own acid free ‘enclosure’ – a slim box – and then 35 or so of these in a row in a larger archive box. This removes any pressure on the negatives themselves.
The digitised files will be more accessible and reduce or even remove the need to handle the originals other than for condition checks. Our digitised master scans of each of the photographs contain enough detail to resolve the film grain on the negative, ensuring that we have captured all of the detail. This is true of all our digitisation activities.
Extract at 100{defc6c7fbd01d59d7a37bb232e5984102f59d6325dfae2b611b202327c53c2bb} from the corner of a photograph showing the original film grain.
There is still work to be done, not least updating the catalogue entries, many of which are brief in the extreme. We will also be editing the “scan masters” to create copies which have been cropped and enhanced. This will be done over the coming months and we ask anyone with extra information about any of the photographs to get in touch with us.
The photographs themselves are fantastic; a real insight into the archaeology of Cornwall in the 20s and 30s. Here are some of the highlights:
Excavation, Magor Farm Roman Villa, 1932
Excavation team, Magor Farm Roman Villa, 1932
The gateway at Chûn Castle, 1930s
Excavations at Tintagel, 1930s (O.193)
The Towednack Gold Hoard as discovered in December 1931 (O.58)
Selfies aren’t as recent a phenomena as we may think. Is this Stanley Opie taking his own photograph? (O.510)
You can view and browse all photos from the Stanley Opie Archaeology Collection and search them on our Photographic Archive catalogue.
The Morrab Library would like to extend great thanks to Cornwall Heritage Trust for funding this project.
