The British Library is fifty this year and is inviting you to share in its celebrations. If you don’t live in London, you can still check out some of its resources for free on its YouTube channel, Facebook page, and its own website. As might be suspected, the actual Library goes back a long way […]
The British Library will be holding an exhibition on fake news at its main site, in London from April 22 until August 21. Tickets and details can be found here, but the introductory blurb is, er, interesting, to say the least. “News has the power to make and break elections” It certainly does; it nearly […]
The British Library reopened in July. It is now September, but things have changed big time since the lockdown. Instead of just turning up at one of the reading rooms, seats must be booked in advance, now and for the immediate future, perhaps longer. Readers were limited to one session per week, but this has now been increased to two. The sessions are said to be four hours in length. In what universe is 11.30am to 2.30pm four hours?
The 2020 Mind Sports Olympiad, the first one to be held on-line, took place over the entire month of August bar August 31. Full details of the events and prize winners can be found on the official site, but in summary, it was a great success.
Because entry was free, but just as importantly because there were no physical barriers to overcome such as travel, there was a much larger turnout, but there was some striking consistency among the veterans.
As the worldwide coronavirus lockdown comes to an end, in Britain at least, libraries and archives are opening again. The British Library will see limited opening from July 22, and the National Archives from the day before. Things will be slightly different from before though.
Another field that was dominated by men was publishing, and again thanks to their investment and enabling, women would rise to prominence as authors of fiction. The famous Brontë sisters may have had short lives, but their works are still read with enthusiasm today. Emily Brontë died aged just thirty, possibly because she ignored medical advice. Charlotte had been married for less than a year when she died just short of her thirty-ninth birthday and heavily pregnant. Had they been born a century later, all three sisters might well have lived to old age.
In the ancient world, sons were preferred to daughters because they were expected to support their parents in old age. In the Arab world, if a woman gave birth to a daughter who was considered “superfluous” to requirements, she would be taken into the desert and buried alive. The Prophet himself is said to have put an end to this barbaric practice, and indeed while the religion is today often attacked as violating women’s rights, Islam goes out of its way to protect both sexes.
An exhibition called Unfinished Business: The Fight for Women’s Rights was due to open at the British Library April 24. With the current situation there are of course serious doubts about its opening at all, but it is scheduled to run until August, so presumably the entire event won’t be cancelled.
