A piece on the disappearance of 250k+ books from Walthamstow, and on the fate of books and libraries more generally. Firstly, it is a scandal that so many books were disposed of, with no apparent thought for alternatives. That some books need to be weeded is accepted by most people. But there should always be a [...]

Where America leads, it seems, we are bound to follow. I know it is a while since Tim Coates published and publicised Yinnon Ezra, board member of the MLA and head of leisure services in Hampshire, who publicly questioned the need for fiction in public libraries ''we have to ask whether fiction should remain in libraries when most people buy ...