Summary
The writer Nicholas Royle is a passionate supporter of libraries and a devoted bibliophile. As a young man his passion for books was so strong, in fact, that some of the books he borrowed from libraries didn't manage to find their way back to their homes on the library shelves. Now, over three decades on, Nicholas is finally doing the right thing and returning the books to the places he first encountered them - Manchester, Paris and London - hoping to avoid any hefty fines in his attempt to straighten his accounts. Along the way he considers his evolving relationship with both books and libraries, meeting other writers such as Vahni Capildeo and Polar Bear to hear about books they have neglected to return because they loved them so much; he also speaks with others who would never dream of failing to take their books back, such as AL Kennedy. Nicholas also meets a successful journalist who went to the same school as him and was one of the last to borrow the novel before Nicholas himself took it on extended leave. Producer: Geoff Bird.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the BBC. |
| 0:05.0 | As a child, my bedroom was full of books, shelves heaving, teetering towers piled on the floor. |
| 0:14.8 | My earliest memories of being engrossed by books was the famous five, the children running |
| 0:20.2 | free, fighting the bad guys, and going on adventures. |
| 0:25.0 | I was absorbed in their exploits. |
| 0:27.6 | I remember my father telling me, never lend a book, you never get it back. |
| 0:32.3 | And I've made that mistake myself. |
| 0:34.6 | And so I think you should take it back just for... |
| 0:37.6 | You know, I think they are sacrosanct and they belong to someone else. |
| 0:43.0 | I'm Riana Dylan and today's seriously interesting story is taking us on a mission, |
| 0:48.8 | an escapade to France. Because about 30 years ago, author Nicholas Royal borrowed a book from the |
| 0:57.2 | Biblio de de schnauphier de la Rindisma Rondisimo. And he's trying to rectify |
| 1:01.1 | his crimes. Now, shh. I'm in the reading room of Manchester Central |
| 1:08.3 | Library. It's extremely quiet in here. I used to come here a lot when I was a teenager. It is a huge dome-like |
| 1:18.2 | structure and I was always fascinated by the acoustics and now I'm at the mercy of them. I think I need to be |
| 1:28.6 | careful for fear of upsetting some of the library users so I'm off in search for quiet alcove somewhere. |
| 1:34.4 | I've stepped out of the reading room into the music library. I didn't use to come here so much when I was younger. I used to go to the language and literature library right at the top of the building. |
| 1:54.0 | I've been up there and that's changed out of recognition now. |
| 1:57.0 | I used to go there to borrow books by the French novelist Alan Rob Grieg. Strangely enough I'm holding one of Rob Grieg's books in my hand |
| 2:06.8 | at the moment, which was borrowed from a library in Paris in 1984 and, I'm ashamed to say never given back. |
| 2:15.0 | I'm actually a serial offender. |
| 2:18.0 | I've got two other books in my hands from libraries |
... |
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