The Librarian by Salley Vickers [Large Paperback: Excellent]

Large format paperback in Excellent condition (385 pages)

A charmingly subversive novel about a library in 1950s England, by the acclaimed author of The Cleaner of Chartres.

In 1958 Sylvia Blackwell, fresh from one of the new post-war Library Schools, takes up a job as children's librarian in a run down library in the market town of East Mole.  Her mission is to fire the enthusiasm of the children of East Mole for reading.  But her love affair with the local married GP, and her befriending of his precious daughter, her neighbour's son, and her landlady's neglected grandchild, ignite the prejudices of the town, threatening her job and the very existence of the library with dramatic consequences for them all.  The Librarian is a moving testament to the joy of reading and the power of books to change and inspire us all.

"Vickers sees with a clear eye and writes with a light hand; she's a presence worth cherishing in the ranks of modern novelists." ~ Philip Pullman

"Vickers has a formidable knack for laying open the human heart" ~ Sunday Times