Kent Libraries

Listen to an extract of Life of Pi.

Listen now with BorrowBox’s latest feature – the best titles without the queues. Head to our website to find out how to borrow this title for free via the BorrowBox app! https://www.kent.gov.uk/leisure-and-community/libraries/ebooks-eaudiobooks-emagazines-enewspapers

Dr Claire Carrothers, Queen Mary University of London visited Kent Archives to give a brilliant talk on Murder, Madness and Miracles: The Shrine of Thomas Becket and its Mad Pilgrims in Twelfth-Century Canterbury.

From giddiness and demonic possession, to visions of the Thomas Becket flying around the cathedral dolling out cures, Claire takes us through Canterbury's 12th Century fascinating miracle collections.

You can find a transcript of this talk here: https://bit.ly/3m2qukI

Kent Archives hold the largest collection of historic material relating to the ancient county of Kent dating back to 699 AD, from the earliest charters written on sheepskin to the present state of the art digital images. Our archive and local history collections tell the story of Kent and beyond, and are a focal point for the county’s heritage and culture, most of which you can access when you visit the Kent History and Library Centre in Maidstone.

While the archives consist of original records, often handwritten and unique, created in the course of human activities, the local history collection consists largely of printed material and includes published original records, as well as printed books. The collections tell the stories of people’s lives and their communities through diaries, eyewitness accounts, records of crime and punishment, titles to property, newspapers, photographs, maps and posters, and more.

Please visit kentarchives.org.uk for more information and our past talks.

The Kentish motto, invicta, is a Latin word meaning undefeated or unconquered. But is Kent truly the unconquered county?

James Lloyd gained a Cambridge doctorate for research into local government in Anglo-Saxon England. This talk was recorded in April 2022 and a transcript can be found at https://bit.ly/3ysOlll

Kent Archives hold the largest collection of historic material relating to the ancient county of Kent dating back to 699 AD, from the earliest charters written on sheepskin to the present state of the art digital images. Our archive and local history collections tell the story of Kent and beyond, and are a focal point for the county’s heritage and culture, most of which you can access when you visit the Kent History and Library Centre in Maidstone.

While the archives consist of original records, often handwritten and unique, created in the course of human activities, the local history collection consists largely of printed material and includes published original records, as well as printed books. The collections tell the stories of people’s lives and their communities through diaries, eyewitness accounts, records of crime and punishment, titles to property, newspapers, photographs, maps and posters, and more.

Please visit https://www.kentarchives.org.uk for more information

Lynsey from Folkestone Libraries talks to Academy FM Folkestone about their new Playground sessions, and the reopening of Cheriton Library after it's fabulous refurbishment, with a teaser involving the artist Richie Moment (royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/name/richie-moment)!

Find our more about your local library at kent.gov.uk/libraries and follow us on Facebook: facebook.com/FolkestoneLibraries

A transcript of this interview can be found at bit.ly/3tLL6Bp

Fiona from Kent Libraries, Registration and Archives chats to Maidstone Radio about the return of activities and events including our exciting upcoming exhibition 'Breaking the News' in collaboration with The British Library in Maidstone.

Find out more about 'Breaking the News' and book onto our FREE events at https://bit.ly/BreakingTheNewsKent

Liz Finn and Ellie Thomas from Kent Libraries and Archives talk about the film Mädchen in Uniform (1931). Written and co-directed by women, and featuring an all-female cast, Mädchen in Uniform carries the honour of showing the first, female gaze, lesbian kiss in a feature film.

To celebrate the director Leontine Sagan's birthday and for this year's LGBT+ History Month with its theme of Politics in Art, Liz and Ellie talk about the playwright Christa Winsloe, discuss how the original play made it on-screen, and what the changing political landscape in the 20th Century meant for LGBT representation in media, both in Berlin and worldwide.

Reserve Mädchen in Uniform on DVD to collect from your nearest local Kent library at https://bit.ly/ReserveMadchenInUniform. Rental charges for DVDs include premium titles at £2.50 for 3 days and standard titles are £1.50 for 1 week.

If you would like to read more about this film, sources for Liz's talk include:

• Christa Winsloe, Demoiselles en Uniforme…

traduction fidèle de la pièce Allemande Gestern und Heute

d’oè a été tiré le film sensationnel Mädchen in Uniforn sous le titre Jeunes Filles en Uniforme

(Paris: Fasquelle Éditeurs, 1932)

• Christa Winsloe, The Child Manuela

(London: Virago Press, 1994)

[English translation of Das Mädchen Manuela by Agnes Neill Scott, first published 1934]

• Doris Hermanns, Meerkatzen, Meissel und das Mädchen Manuela:

die Schriftestellerin ind Tierbildhaurein Christa Winsloe

(Berlin: Aviva, 2012)

[biography of Christa Winsloe]

• Eldorado. Homosexuelle Frauen und Männer in Berlin 1850-1950. Geschichte, Alltag und Kultur

(Berlin: Edition Hentrich, 1992)

[Catalogue of an exhibition relating to gay and lesbian history, daily life and culture in Berlin]

• https://haferdinand.com/the-kiss-the-women-who-made-a-movie-masterpiece/

[14-part podcast on the film by Bibi Berki]

A transcript of this talk can be found at https://bit.ly/3LD2yjs

More than 740,000 British servicemen were killed or died in the First World War. The poignant story of the Orchard family from Folkestone illustrates the human cost of the war and how archives can help us bring these personal stories to light.

Liz Finn is an archivist with the Kent Archives Service, based at the Kent History and Library Centre. She currently combines her post of Community History Officer with a role as Manorial Documents Register Project Officer for Kent.

This talk was recorded in July 2019. A transcript of this talk can be found at bit.ly/3r1z4DY and the full video of the talk can be watched at youtu.be/PJRcEtFPmoM

Please visit kentarchives.org.uk/ for more information

#Folkestone #LocalHistory #WorldWarOne #Archives #KentArchives

Fiona from Kent Libraries, Registration and Archives chats to Maidstone Radio about the return of activities and events including our exciting upcoming exhibition 'Breaking the News' in collaboration with The British Library in Maidstone, plus the launch of Kent's Business and IP Centre, the 10 year anniversary of the Kent History and Library Centre and more!

Find out more about 'Breaking the News' and book onto our FREE events at https://bit.ly/BreakingTheNewsKent

Keep up to date with offers from our Business and IP Centre, visit https://www.bipckent.org.uk/

Not a member of the library yet? Join today at http://bit.ly/JoinKentLibraries

A transcript of this interview can be found at https://bit.ly/3BjXiMV

#Libraries #Kent #KentUK

Ypres: transforming a Belgian city into an outpost of the British Empire, 1919-1939. As soon as the war ended, visitors began to arrive. Some wanted to find out where loved ones had fought and died while others wanted to see something of the reality of the battlefields for themselves...

Mark Connelly is Professor of Modern British History at the University of Kent. He works closely with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and has assisted the Department of Culture, Media and Sport with its activities during the First World War centenary.

This talk was recorded in July 2019 and a full transcript can be found at bit.ly/3zOQ2rR

Watch a video of this talk at youtu.be/i-nZKosN-pg

For more information please visit www.kentarchives.org.uk

Dr Claire Bartram examines famous and not-so-famous writers, readers and bibliophiles living in Kent and considers the social circumstances that underpins what Peter Laslett famously termed the ‘bookish’ reputation of the Kentish in Tudor times.

Claire Bartram teaches early modern literature at Canterbury Christ Church University and is especially interested in writers and readers living in Kent in the sixteenth century. Her recent edited collection of essays Kentish Book Culture: Writers, Archives, Libraries and Sociability 1400-1660, (Peter Lang, 2020) explores the writing practices and book collections of a range of individuals in early modern Kent, including monks, a mariner and an apothecary as well as members of the gentry and clergy and urban administrators.

This talk was recorded in June 2019 and a transcript can be found at bit.ly/3tgRtOl

A video of this talk can be found at youtu.be/30JLdbZI0DM

For more information visit kentarchives.org.uk