This week marks the beginning of the new year in the Chinese calendar. Traditionally the event is celebrated with dragon dances, fire crackers and family gatherings. Sadly this year the celebrations will be more muted, even in Newcastle’s celebrated China Town where the many fabulous…
The ever popular Wellbeing for Life group meets again this week. Hosted jointly by the Elders’ Council for Newcastle and the Friends of Jesmond Library, the group currently meets online. Speed drawing your way through lockdown The next event on Wednesday 3rd February at 10.30am…
How many of us have a 2021 diary which, because of the ongoing restrictions and repeated exhortations to stay home, is still pristine and unused? This third lockdown means our normal routines have been disrupted. I wonder if you too find yourself unable to work…
When we read a good book, something magical can happen. Locked down and in our own home we lose ourselves inside a fictional world, created by the imagination of the author but transformed into a virtual reality by our emotional response to the written word….
Jesmond Library is once again running its popular annual creative writing competition. This year the theme is “Do you want to know a secret?” With that as your starting point let your imagination take you anywhere it will. There are four age categories: Under 5…
‘It is a truth universally acknowledged that a man or woman in search of something useful must be in want of a good list’. I live my life by lists, and this has become an ever present ‘to do’ need in managing my life, especially…
September – summer is over and autumn has taken its place. School children return to their classes, students to university and colleges, and so the new term begins. Here at Jesmond Library we too have a new programme planned for the autumn. We hope you…
It is a truth universally acknowledged… …that a novel in possession of a good opening, must be in want of a reader. (With apologies to Jane Austen for this unashamed parody of the beginning of Pride and Prejudice.) One of the fascinating gifts I received…
There is a special delight in choosing a new book from the Library shelf. What will it be? A novel – crime, romance, historical or thriller – each provide a voyage of discovery to a fictional world peopled by characters formed in the imagination of…
Rules, and lives, are changing. Schools and nurseries are cracking open their doors. People are returning to work. We’re taking tentative steps towards seeing our friends and loved ones. We continue to peep round corners, give strangers a wide berth, but the pace of life…
