5 Quotes by Stuart Kells

For every species of book person, the idea of Shakespeare’s library—his personal collection of manuscripts, books, letters and other papers—is enticing, totemic, a subject of wonder. How did he write? Who inspired him? Who appalled him? To know Shakespeare’s books is to know Shakespeare the author.

If Shakespeare was another Barrington—just an allonymous brand, just a gormless frontman—then there had to be a Machiavelli in the background—a cunning architect of an elaborate bibliographical hoax. How could such a thing be done? And what kind of person could pull it off?

For Umberto Eco, the ideal library was humane and lighthearted, a place where two students could sit on a couch in the afternoon and, without doing anything too indecent, ‘enjoy the continuation of their flirtation in the library as they take down or replace some books of scientific interest from their shelves’.

For many years, Larkin was university librarian at Hull University’s Brynmor Jones Library. When Larkin first met a new vice chancellor there, the VC asked for the library’s payroll/non-payroll breakdown. ‘Mind your own fucking business’ was the poet’s muffled reply.

Designer clothes were another well-known taste. ‘Just because I am a librarian,’ she declared, ‘doesn’t mean I have to dress like one.