WHILE THERE AREN’T too many lending libraries around now, they used to be popular in England in the late nineteen century and early twentieth century when books were less affordable than they are now.
Public libraries tended to carry more literary classics and research books with fewer contemporary novels that the general public wanted. This and many other reasons created a need for lending libraries that could offer a subscription for borrowing books priced a little more than the cost of a brand-new book.
While the Booklover’s Library no longer exists, I did have the opportunity to visit Bromley House Library in Nottingham, England, on my research trip. Bromley House dates back to 1816 and is a fully functioning lending library that charges a subscription fee and offers an array of incredible books and archives. There is a gorgeous spiral staircase, rare books available for subscribers to peruse, reading rooms that are so numerous I got lost going through them all, and even a children’s reading area that has a secret Narnia closet. The staff was immensely kind and answered all my questions, gave me a tour, and allowed me to study there for a day. Seeing a lending library in action was so helpful in my research.
So, yes, Boots’ Booklover’s Library was a real lending library that started in Nottingham and eventually had multiple locations in many Boots’ chemists throughout England. These lending libraries were held to a high standard to provide an elevated level of service to their subscribers. Where most other lending libraries were relegated to basements and windowless areas, the Booklover’s Library offered comfort and elegance with carpets, fresh-cut flowers, and stained-glass windows. The location of the Booklover’s Libraries in the Boots’ chemist shops was often on the second floor or at the back of the shop to create an experience where patrons could be immersed in the joy of selecting their next read away from the hustle and bustle of the chemist.
What’s more, their employees were incredibly well cared for. Not only did Mrs. Boots insist early on that “her girls” be given hot chocolate or tea in the mornings, but prior to her retirement, she also personally visited her employees when they were sick, she helped created a school in Nottingham for their higher education, and she gifted a Bible to those who got married and had to leave their positions at the Booklover’s Library.
Which leads me to why I found the lending library to be an inspiring setting. The women who worked for the Booklover’s Library loved their jobs and were disinclined to leave, even if that meant holding off on getting married. They were known to have notoriously long engagements to avoid having to sacrifice the jobs they loved so much.
Many companies incorporated a marriage bar, meaning that when women were married, they were required to leave their jobs to become full-time wives. Boots’ continued this practice into the 1950s, and the marriage bar became illegal in the UK in 1975 under the Sex Discrimination Act of 1975. While not all companies enlisted a marriage bar, most did, especially those with a higher-end clientele, like the Booklover’s Library, which catered to the upper middle class.
Sadly, the marriage bar extended to widows with children, even though the widow was no longer married. This bar for widows was a large part of the inspiration for this story.
I’m divorced and spent several years as a single mother of my two beautiful girls. Even in these modern times when divorce for couples with kids is estimated to be as high as 40 percent, there are stigmas attached to being a single parent. Those stigmas were even more pronounced in the 1930s and 1940s. I won’t go into a lot of detail on this, but I will say that many of my own experiences were shared in this story. Not only the bad, but also the good. Because as grateful as I am for my current wonderful husband, who is truly my own Mr. Fisk, those years when it was just me and my girls are still precious and left me with many fond memories.
One of those is the advent of breakfast faces. They started one morning when I realized we were out of milk—a necessary staple for my cereal-loving girls. In a pinch, I had to think of a way to entice them toward what we did have: eggs, bananas, grapes, and dry cereal. The breakfast face was born and still makes them smile a decade later.
Another memory that I wanted to share through Emma’s eyes was how much gifts meant to her when going back to an empty home. Not even a month after my separation from my ex-husband, I attended a conference and was dreading returning home to an empty house while my girls were with their dad. As it happened, I won a massive gift basket full of books the last day of the conference (assembled by a romance book blogger who is now a friend, PJ Ausdenmore with The Romance Dish). Going home to a sad, empty house that had once been full of joy and laughter is something I would not wish on anyone. But that basket was a light in the debilitating dark. I think I took two hours to go through every item. It was a gift that was so meaningful to me at a time when I needed it most that I knew I had to incorporate it into Emma’s story.
My girls are now teenagers (where did the time go?), so to recall some of those earlier days, I looked up pictures of when they were seven to nine years old to ensure I had Olivia’s behavior just right at that age. All it took was a glimpse at those moments and the memories came rushing back. Olivia is a cross between both my girls: the artistic, sensitive nature of my oldest and the quiet, contemplative traits of my youngest. Reliving those aspects of my daughters through writing Olivia left my heart full and happy, and truly made me ache over Emma’s plight in having to send her away.
When I first wrote about England at war in The Last Bookshop in London, I was horrified to learn about the children’s evacuation. I cannot imagine having to choose between putting my girls in danger or sending them away to live with a stranger. Immediately I knew I wanted to write a book about the evacuation at some point. This interest was further piqued when a woman named Joyce Harvey reached out to me with an incredible evacuation story of her own. She had been so desperate to return home that she ran away from where she was billeted along the coast and managed to get all the way to South London, where her parents and police officers were waiting anxiously for any news on her. With such incredible real-life inspiration, I had to write this story. Thank you for sharing your amazing story, Joyce—you are plucky and fearless!
On the note of The Last Bookshop in London, I confess, I love the characters from that book dearly. They are lodged in my heart so thoroughly that when I realized I intended to bring Emma to London for her training, I had to include a cameo. I hope everyone enjoyed the small visit with Grace and Mr. Evans at Primrose Hill Books as much as I did.
As with all my books, I did extensive research to ensure this story is as accurate as possible. One key element of this research was one I used also when writing The Last Bookshop in London: the Mass Observation. This initiative began in 1937 when hundreds of people were asked to record their daily thoughts and went on for almost thirty more years. The recorded thoughts were meant to capture the overall public feel for King Edward VIII’s abdication and coincidentally segued into the start of WWII and captured the mood, reaction, and general daily life details of the population before, during, and after the war. Not everyone was in support of the Mass Observation, with some people finding it an invasion of privacy to friends, family, and neighbors who were being discussed in these diaries. However, the thoroughness of people’s recordings through the Mass Observation has been invaluable to me as an author. And if you’re wondering why Emma confronts Mr. Beard about what he’s writing and learns he’s working with Mass Observation—that was entirely meant to be tongue in cheek.
I always try to stay true to every historical detail I can with very little exceptions. In this particular book, the air raid that struck while Emma was chasing Olivia on Canal Street did actually have an air raid siren that went off. However, not all air raids had accompanying sirens to warn the populace beforehand. This was my one small tweak not only to heighten the danger of Emma seeing Olivia before the bombs fell, but also as a means of demonstrating what some people did endure with surprise air raids.
A reader’s guide and list of titles mentioned in this book will be available upon the release of The Booklover’s Library on September 10, 2024, on my website, www.madelinemartin.com.