I’m really looking forward to my month-long residency at Gladstone’s Library in Hawarden, Flintshire: the UK’s only prime ministerial library. It describes itself as
…a residential library and meeting place which is dedicated to dialogue, debate and learning for open-minded individuals and groups, who are looking to explore pressing questions and to pursue study and research in an age of distraction and easy solutions… It was founded by the great Victorian statesman himself and, following his death in 1898, became the national memorial to his life and work.
I’ll be there throughout the month of May, drifting in and out of the library and grounds, with my nose in a book. Come and join me!
I’m running two public events during my time there: an evening session on the 8 May during which I’ll discuss ‘making the personal political’ (£15, which also includes a copy of Thicker Than Water), and a day-long masterclass in the techniques of creative non-fiction on 26 May (£35, including lunch). There are rooms available on a B&B basis and a bistro on site.
