We are delighted to welcome Sita Brahmachari to the blog with a very special guest blog about libraries and their role in her books.  Throughout Libraries Week we will be posting special content each day so do check back!

Imagine a world in which libraries are closed, schools are closed, and those without books at home or the tech to access ‘digital libraries’ are denied access to books and learning. A world in which only children from certain backgrounds can thrive.

Surely such a vision belongs only in the dystopia I explored in Where The River Runs Gold? and yet…

Recently, when my local library building re-opened albeit on a partial basis, one of the things that most gladdened my heart was seeing the families waiting on the steps to enter the story hearth. In writing my latest novel When Secrets Set Sail libraries and librarians have been once again in my mind and heart.

When contemporary children Imtiaz and Usha hear the whispers of history in their Hackney home and go in search of the identity of the ghostly voice of a woman speaking to them through a conch shell, they head to the library.  Of course the first port of call for many children today is the internet…. But in my story and in real life not everything they need to discover about the voice in the conch that belongs to an ayah (one of many Indian nannies who used to live in the house) can be found online.

 A satellite local library at the end of their street, run by a professional retired librarian from Hackney, holds many treasures including an archive of local history - old photos and newspapers articles contributed over generations.

Charles and Dr Devi (the latter an archivist at V&A Museum) like so many librarians I have worked with on my writing way,  do so much more than most people will ever know to engender in young people a lifelong love of reading for pleasure. The children and families who are so eager to re-enter the beating heart of library buildings after the long closure, know and feel this deeply.

School and public libraries and librarians have been inspirations and helped me to write these stories.

It was a librarian in an East London school who set up a Somali girl’s writing group and invited me to work with  them for a year as I wrote Red Leaves in which Aisha,  a Somali refugee survivor, is a central character. These children are credited in the acknowledgements of the story and it would not surprise me at all if some of that group become writers one day. In publication week Imogen Russell Williams, then working in a school library, kindly sent me a copy of how many times the book had been taken out in one week.  I keep this well-thumbed one week old copy by my desk to remind myself of how hungry children are for stories that can speak to them.

Similarly in Tender Earth, while Patron of Reading at Archer Academy, I worked in the safe haven of the library with two children who have cerebral palsy because they told me they wanted me to represent a character in a wheelchair in my next story. Our work together led me to write the character of Kezia. It is so often in the library the space can be created for this precious work with young readers and potential authors of tomorrow. It can be no coincidence that so many of us authors credit our love of reading and writing to childhood libraries and librarians.

For my most recent novel When Secrets Set Sail, the scope of a story exploring different kinds of oral history testimony was first tested at Fortismere School when I was Patron of Reading there.  I was working on a creative writing project encouraging students to write ‘Letters to an Unknown Soldier’ – the nameless statue on Liverpool Street Station.  Librarian Gill Ward and I were overwhelmed by the students’ response and the objects and photos they brought in of their family histories. The experience led me to understand the impact that a story focusing on oral history might have.

When visiting Sheffield Libraries with Empathy Lab a librarian talked of how few depictions of Roma children there are in stories. Later at an Amnesty Conference I was shocked to discover that Roma children have a life expectancy on average of ten years less than any other group of children and the lowest literacy rates too. The character of Cosmo and his storytelling grandmother Valini began to grow… In homage to where the idea was seeded …. In When Secrets Set Sail we meet Cosmo for the first time as he is taking out a poetry book assisted by Charles at his library hearth!

In search of Hearths

‘Close the curtains. Good! Now imagine sitting there, plugging your earphones in and listening to people telling you their local history stories while watching all the photos and documents in those archive boxes  scrolling around the screen in front of you. Your very own personal experience in the passport booth of history!

(Page 141 When Secrets Set Sail)

Charles has had ambitions to place the diverse oral history of the area into an old passport photo booth he calls ‘The Passport to History Booth.’ It’s a kind of ‘Doctor Who’ Tardis of an oral history project through which he hopes to ignite the imagination of the community and creates a hearth for many children and families to contribute their stories to and gather around.

The library is one of several hearths in When Secrets Set Sail. The Joseph family also run a drop-in refugee centre in the bottom of the house they name ‘The Hearth’. I realise that in all the stories that I have written, no matter what challenges, past, present or near future dangers the children face, I am always seeking out  free creative – story hearths and hives -  for them to grow where hope seeds can be planted and  their spirits and imaginations nurtured.

Brent Library visit (2019) Shifa’s seed packets from Where The River Runs Gold have generated many more.

The refugee centre Hearth that forms the bottom layer of the magical ‘Ship House’ in When Secrets Set Sail  is homage to the art and writing class that Jane Ray and myself run at Islington Centre For Refugees and Migrants work together in. We have sometimes exhibited the work in Islington Libraries.  People are very often stunned to know that this book borrowing service is free to all. Sometimes one has to step outside one’s own reality to see how miraculous a free library service can look like for members of the centre. Through another lens it is moving to see how the local community respond to the art and writing of newly arrived refugee people. The library is the place where local meets global.

Public libraries and School Librarians have been working hard over lockdown to keep their online offerings, orders and collections open in this digital age and yet what is missing for the families in my local library is the physical building. This is what the families I saw sitting outside excitedly waiting to enter have been missing… the warm welcome around the story Hearth that libraries and librarians should be able to offer us all, whoever we are.

‘Culture n’ Stuff’ – What treasure is to be found in the library?

Young people use the library in many different ways in my stories. I think of Aisha and her friend Muna in Red Leaves using it as the space where they explore ‘Culture n’ Stuff.’ I have a game that I play as I write of imagining the child characters forward into adulthood and I pin point who planted in them the seeds that make them grow into who they will become.  For Aisha it will be the librarian who first nurtures her poetry telling voice.

In Tender Earth Pari and Aisha debate the kind of books that feed them.  Laila finds in I am Malala the most eye, heart and soul opening story she has ever read. By contrast, her friend Pari, a refugee survivor from Iraq, is in search of fantasy. In addition she resents being ‘a charity case’ for Laila’s hand me down stories. Pari prefers the library because as she sees it, here all students have equal access to books even if their parents don’t have bookshelves at home.

From Corey’s Rock Illustrated by Jane Ray

In Corey’s Rock - Orkney Libraries provides the dreaming space of soft cushions and beautiful children’s artwork. This story corner or ‘Hearth’ has been lovingly created by the librarians. It’s here that Isla finds solace and healing through reading.  Despite the fact that she has stories told to her and selected by her parents --- it is here in the library space that she seeks independence and solace. When Isla declares an interest in ‘Selkie Tales’ the librarian is able to locate and offer her a choice from which she hones in on just the one she needs. Here is where Isla’s own agency over her journey of recovery begins.

A place to dream

If the bottom deck of the Ship House in When Secrets Set Sail is is a hearth the ‘top deck’ is the place in which the children’s imagination is given space to roam… the room ‘more of ship than a bedroom’ contains an anchor and an enormous porthole that Usha’s Pops Michael created from old bits of wreckage collected from shipyards as he travelled around the world. If only each piece could tell its story… Along with the anchor a central feature is an enormous circular window named ‘The Globe Window,’ offering, Pop’s Michael once said, ‘our very own porthole onto the world.’

The children in my stories are seeking these spaces to dream, to explore their own histories and those of their globe-wide Diaspora families, friends and neighbours … they’re looking to see how ‘culture n’stuff’ connects them and to read themselves into these spaces. Some might seek stories to see how they are reflected through ‘The Globe Window’ and other readers and writers like my young narrators Imtiaz and Usha, are keen to push the porthole wide open to set sail on a quest to discover untold stories that will lead them from their home and hearth right across the globe.

From When Secrets Set Sail - a place to dream - The Globe window – illustrated by Evan Hollingdale

Who knows! Maybe Charles’ ‘Passport to History Booth’ dream to have an oral history project in ‘every library in the land!’ really can come true! I have already seen many wonderful displays when visiting libraries.

I hope this story will be a catalyst for many more.

Invitation!

The actual house in Hackney in which When Secrets Set Sail is set has been nominated for a Blue Plaque due to the work of Farahanah Mamoojee @ayahshome and Hackney Libraries and Museum. Librarians are invited to take part in an interactive project #WSSBluePlaqueProject and have readers and students enter their own nominations of buildings and people they would like to see commemorated. To find out more visit:

https://www.hachetteschools.co.uk/landing-page/when-secrets-set-sail-by-sita-brahmachari/

https://www.booktrust.org.uk/news-and-features/features/2020/september/why-sita-brahmachari-wants-you-to-discover-the-amazing-history-in-your-street/

Image gallery shows:

When Secrets Set Sail jacket image

Tender Earth back cover

Brent Library Visit (2019), Shifa's seed packets from Where the River Runs Gold

Illustration by Jane Ray from Corey's Rock

The Globe Window, illustration by Evan Hollingdale from When Secrets Set Sail

A huge thank you to Sita Brahmachari for this very special blog and for starting our Libraries Week week of content!