Thursday Evening Talks at Jesmond Library have been a regular event in our calendar for over 10 years, offering a varied and interesting range of talks on many different topics. We’re back this week with a new season. Hopefully you’ll find something here to interest you.

September

We kick off our autumn talks season with a sensitive subject – death and what comes after it.

Alex Thornhill will speak on September 12 about ‘The Final Chapter’,  funeral wishes and how to make sure yours are in place.

Plastic Free Awards (once again deferred, to be rearranged)

September 19 will see the prizegiving, deferred from the Community Festival, for the Plastic Free Jesmond and Sandyford awards, sponsored by Keep Jesmond Clean and Jesmond Community Festival

Staying connected

September 26 Fiona Duncan will tell us more about ongoing research by the National Institute for Health and Care, looking at how technology enabled people to stay connected during the Covid lockdowns.

Deferred – to be rearranged

October

October starts with a discussion about the ongoing future of Jesmond Library led by the new Chair, Peter Breakey.

As we move into the second decade as an entirely volunteer-run community managed library, Peter will share some thoughts on the challenges and opportunities for Jesmond Library, and also the development of Jesmond Community Interest Company (CIC).

Come along and join in the discussion.

Books and writers

The rest of October is all about books and writers.

Keith Jewitt will give the eagerly awaited second of his talks about local author Sid Chaplin on October 10.

Author Jane Austen will be the subject of Janice Spencer’s talk on October 17.

We’re back at Jesmond Library on 31 October. And appropriately enough on Hallowe’en, we’ll hear from Helena Habibi about Frankenstein.

Big Questions?

The Library will take a week’s breather on Thursday October 24 when Jesmond URC will once again host the Big Questions Cafe, offering a delicious meal and some fascinating discussions based around the topic “What do we owe the future? Artificial Intelligence and Designing in Humanity”. More details Big Questions Cafe

November

The bookish theme continues into November when on the 7th local writer Ron Clarke, whose work features in our ‘Welcome to the Library’ anthology, will discuss his memoir about selling ice cream at Seahouses one memorable summer.

The following week a new Jesmond resident, David Lanigan, will be talking about his own memoir entitled ‘Full Circle – my life in Aviation’. He credits the Biggles books for his choice of a flying career!

On November 21 we welcome back Jon Quayle  from Newcastle University. This time he’ll be talking about Utopias and asking what Jesmond folk would consider to be their personal ideal world.

John North wraps up the autumn season for us on 28 November when he will tell us more about the history of St George’s Church, Jesmond.  

Get involved

We’d love to hear from you if there are any topics or speakers you’d like to see in our talks programme  – we’ll do our best to oblige!

And if you would like to become more involved, why not help us plan next year’s season of talks? Or perhaps you would like to join the tech team who help to make sure ‘it’ll be alright on the night’!

All Talks start at 6pm and unless otherwise stated take place in person in the Library. Donations are requested in aid of Library funds, suggested £3 per person.

Many thanks to Anne Burton, one of the Library Trustees, for this blog post. If you want to find out more about getting involved, email enquiries@jesmondlibrary.org