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| Murder in the library | Murder in the library |
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| 'Excuse me madam, we are looking for a Ms Catherine Cookson'Why don't librarians make good detectives? It's all to do with melting in with a crowd, says Laurie Taylor in his weekly column for the Magazine. | 'Excuse me madam, we are looking for a Ms Catherine Cookson'Why don't librarians make good detectives? It's all to do with melting in with a crowd, says Laurie Taylor in his weekly column for the Magazine. |
| Once upon a time I was a child librarian. Not, as I once had to explain over the phone, a very young librarian, but a proper grown-up of 22 years old who was in charge of the children's section of a library in a rather rough, run-down area of Liverpool. | Once upon a time I was a child librarian. Not, as I once had to explain over the phone, a very young librarian, but a proper grown-up of 22 years old who was in charge of the children's section of a library in a rather rough, run-down area of Liverpool. |
| Most of my duties were fairly routine: receiving and issuing books, cataloguing new arrivals, tidying up the tables after closing time, and ensuring that all the books on the shelves - apart from the great big ones which had a special section - were in strict alphabetical order. FIND OUT MORE Hear Laurie Taylor's Thinking Allowed on Radio 4 at 1600 on Wednesdaysor 0030 on MondaysOr download the podcast here | Most of my duties were fairly routine: receiving and issuing books, cataloguing new arrivals, tidying up the tables after closing time, and ensuring that all the books on the shelves - apart from the great big ones which had a special section - were in strict alphabetical order. FIND OUT MORE Hear Laurie Taylor's Thinking Allowed on Radio 4 at 1600 on Wednesdaysor 0030 on MondaysOr download the podcast here |
| But there was also a moral dimension to my work. My boss - the senior branch librarian - told me that I should do my best to direct children towards more challenging books. Instead of simply conceding to their strident demands for the latest Famous Five adventure I should endeavour to steer them towards Swallows and Amazons or Anne of Green Gables or Treasure Island. | But there was also a moral dimension to my work. My boss - the senior branch librarian - told me that I should do my best to direct children towards more challenging books. Instead of simply conceding to their strident demands for the latest Famous Five adventure I should endeavour to steer them towards Swallows and Amazons or Anne of Green Gables or Treasure Island. |
| It was a pretty frustrating task. Children who were intent on getting their latest fix of Blyton appeared bemused by the suggestion that they try something completely different. Why, when they had come in for hamburger and fries was someone trying to persuade them of the merits of bÅuf bourguignon? | It was a pretty frustrating task. Children who were intent on getting their latest fix of Blyton appeared bemused by the suggestion that they try something completely different. Why, when they had come in for hamburger and fries was someone trying to persuade them of the merits of bÅuf bourguignon? |
| I could hardly complain about their lack of taste. Tucked underneath the counter were the books that I'd chosen to read during the long hours when the library was deserted. Not Austen or Gaskell or Dickens or Tolstoy. But Rex Stout and Ellery Queen and Agatha Christie. I lived on detective stories. | I could hardly complain about their lack of taste. Tucked underneath the counter were the books that I'd chosen to read during the long hours when the library was deserted. Not Austen or Gaskell or Dickens or Tolstoy. But Rex Stout and Ellery Queen and Agatha Christie. I lived on detective stories. |
| Now that I look back I think that their special appeal at that time had something to do with my circumstances. I was a lower middle-class boy working in a solidly working-class neighbourhood and was always aware that outside the doors of the library were people living lives that would always remain a mystery. | Now that I look back I think that their special appeal at that time had something to do with my circumstances. I was a lower middle-class boy working in a solidly working-class neighbourhood and was always aware that outside the doors of the library were people living lives that would always remain a mystery. |
| Odds on National | Odds on National |
| Whenever I went into the pub across the road for a lunch-time half of mild, I was always treated by the other drinkers as an alien. They never invited me into their intense conversations and indeed only turned to me at all when an argument needed to be settled.Where library work and detective work meet | Whenever I went into the pub across the road for a lunch-time half of mild, I was always treated by the other drinkers as an alien. They never invited me into their intense conversations and indeed only turned to me at all when an argument needed to be settled.Where library work and detective work meet |
| "Mr Librarian, who was that King of France who was guillotined?" And even, on one occasion "What were the odds on last year's National winner?" (My failure to answer any question was invariably treated as more evidence for their implicit thesis that the middle-class were jumped up know-nothings). | "Mr Librarian, who was that King of France who was guillotined?" And even, on one occasion "What were the odds on last year's National winner?" (My failure to answer any question was invariably treated as more evidence for their implicit thesis that the middle-class were jumped up know-nothings). |
| If I'd been a proper detective I'd have been able to do more than simply suspect that the packages they frequently passed backwards and forwards to each other had been purloined from the docks at the end of the street. I'd have been able to find out if the brassy blonde who appeared from time to time on the arm of quite different men was a "woman of the night" (some of my detective stories bordered on the archaic). I'd have been able to tell whether or not the very short measures of Scotch which the barman served up to newcomers to the bar were ensured by the simple expedient of placing a shilling in the bottom of the measuring cap. | If I'd been a proper detective I'd have been able to do more than simply suspect that the packages they frequently passed backwards and forwards to each other had been purloined from the docks at the end of the street. I'd have been able to find out if the brassy blonde who appeared from time to time on the arm of quite different men was a "woman of the night" (some of my detective stories bordered on the archaic). I'd have been able to tell whether or not the very short measures of Scotch which the barman served up to newcomers to the bar were ensured by the simple expedient of placing a shilling in the bottom of the measuring cap. |
| True detectives, as my reading told me, were not deterred by class differences. They could cross boundaries and thresholds, invade private places, uncover family secrets. | True detectives, as my reading told me, were not deterred by class differences. They could cross boundaries and thresholds, invade private places, uncover family secrets. |
| I've been learning even more about the theory and practice of detection from Kate Summerscale, the author of The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or The Murder at Road Hill House - a book which is simultaneously the gripping story of a real-life 19th Century murder and a sociological treatise on the nature and significance of the detective in fact and fiction. | I've been learning even more about the theory and practice of detection from Kate Summerscale, the author of The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or The Murder at Road Hill House - a book which is simultaneously the gripping story of a real-life 19th Century murder and a sociological treatise on the nature and significance of the detective in fact and fiction. |
| Below is a selection of your comments. | |
| Halcyon days. I teach English in a rather rough area - trying to get kids to read at all is a struggle. Must have been nicer in the old days.John, Glasgow | |
| While at college taking reference classes, we were often given questions to answer via the Internet or reference books. Often these questions would take up a large part of the week to find the answer to. Interestingly enough when we studied Science and Technologies, it would take less than an hour to find the answer to all five questions. My research skills must have improved slightly!Rachel, Manitoba, Canada |