From the Library With Love

About From the Library With Love

Welcome to my library of interviews... Librarians, bestselling authors and our wartime generation sharing their love of books, reading and some extraordinary stories . #Hidden History #Forgotten women #Bibliotherapy #Libraries INTRODUCTION Welcome to From the Library With Love. A podcast for anyone whose life has been changed by reading. I’m Kate Thompson. Wonderful, transformative things happen when you set foot in a library. In 2019 I uncovered the true story of a forgotten Underground library, built along the tracks of a Tube tunnel during the Blitz. As stories go, it was irresistible and the result was, The Little Wartime Library, my seventh novel. Bethnal Green Public Library, where the novel is set was 100 years old in October 2022, and to celebrate the centenary of this grand old lady, funded by library philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, I set myself the challenge of interviewing 100 library workers. Speaking with one library worker for every year this library has been serving its community seemed a good way to mark this auspicious occasion. Because who better to explain the worth of a hundred-year-old library, than librarians themselves! I wanted to explore the enduring value of libraries and reading. I quickly realised that librarians have the best stories. My research led me to librarians with over fifty years of experience and MBEs, to the impressive women who manage libraries in prisons and schools, to those in remote Scottish islands. From poetry libraries overlooking the wide sweep of the Thames, to the 16th century Shakespeare’s Library in Stratford, via the small but mighty Leadhills Miners’ Library. This podcast was born out of those eye-opening conversations, because as Denise from Tower Hamlets Library told me: 'If you want to see the world, don't join the Army, become a librarian!' I’ll also be talking to international bestselling authors and some remarkable wartime women about their favourite libraries, stories, the craft of writing and the book that helped them to view the world differently. Come and join me as I delve into the secrets behind the stacks. Podcasts edited by Ben Veasey at media-crews.co.uk Image by Julie Price

Publisher

Kate Thompson

Category

arts · fiction · history

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

20 Aug 2023

Latest episode

6 May 2025

Latest episodes

58 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   6 May 2025

   ‘I escaped the Nazis then fixed Lancaster Bombers for the RAF.'

   Send us a text During the Second World War, Ruth Brook escaped Nazi persecution in Germany and followed her wartime sweetheart, a Lancaster Bomber into the RAF. As a WAAF, she quickly found a sense of her own purpose. Ruth was offered a job as a cook, a typist or a flight mechanic. She picked up a spanner and her life began. From welding to hydraulics, WW2 was a intense training ground for a young woman starting out in life. In her 101 years Ruth has packed a lot in. From working as a...

2. 

   18 Jan 2025

   Jean Fullerton, policewoman and district nurse turned novelist on why there is no such thing as an ordinary life.

   Send us a textFormer policewoman and district nurse turned novelist, Jean Fullerton has written over 20 novels but recently published something a bit closer to home, her memoir, A Child of the East End. In conversation at the Write Idea Festival, Jean shared eye-watering stories of her childhood in Wapping, the curse of family secrets, bum-stamping and sexism in the police force and why we romanticise the past, Jean proves there is no such thing as a ordinary life. I started by asking her wha...

3. 

   11 Jan 2025

   Author Louisa Treger investigates the audacious woman who tricked her way into a brutal insane asylum to expose the truth

   Author Louisa Treger uncovers the dark history of women who were wrongly committed to 19th-century asylums, revealing the shocking truth behind societal conformity.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.1 / 5

7 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

10 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 53 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

86

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

51

Contact From the Library With Love

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.