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We are always over the moon when we host award winning authors and Elly Griffiths is no exception!

She  is currently touring the whole month of February as part of the launch of ‘The Lantern men’

Elly (real name Domenica de Rosa) has been writing since 1998 and is a very familiar name in our crime section.

Many of our customers are looking forward to getting their hands on her latest title, why not add yourself to the waiting list today! 

In the western world, crime fiction – mystery, thrillers, suspense, whodunnits, etc. – makes up somewhere between 25 and 40 percent of all fiction book sales. Which has got us wondering…why is crime such a popular genre? Crime fiction found its feet with Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes and entered into a Golden Age in the 1920s with Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot and Dorothy L Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey, amongst others. The Golden Age introduced ‘rules’ for the genre. Reba White Williams (www.louiseharnbyproofreader.com) summarizes these as follows:

1. All the clues available to the investigator must be available to the reader.

2. There must be a body and we must be introduced to it quickly.

3. The perpetrator can’t conveniently appear out of nowhere in the finale.

4. The crime must be solved by deduction rather than coincidence.

5. There must be multiple clues that can be interpreted in a variety of ways, and more than one suspect.

6. Details must be accurate. Crime is fascinating, to be sure, because most of us don’t commit it. But the popularity of the genre has little to do with crime per se. It has far more to do with the very essence of how storytelling works. There are so many sub genres too from cosy mystery (eg. Agatha Christie and M.C Beaton) to forensic (Jeffery Deaver) and legal (John Grisham) to military thriller (Tom Clancy). So perhaps the popularity is also due to the wide appeal to all interests.

We asked some of our colleagues why they enjoy reading crime.

“I enjoy reading scandinavian crime books. The stories are exciting and I am fascinated about why individuals commit shocking acts. I enjoy reading Camilla Lackberg and discovering all about the local detective Patrik Hedstrom and the other inhabitants of the fishing community of Fjallbacka and the appalling crimes that have occurred”.

“I like classic crime as I love a challenge and I like to see if I can guess ‘whodunnit’ before the end!”

“There are lots of different themes to choose from in crime fiction, I like Simon Kernick best, they’re very gripping and engaging”

Tickets are on sale on now on our Eventbrite page priced £5, so grab one while you can and look out for our Elly Griffiths book display coming soon!

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/darlington-libraries-an-evening-with-elly-griffiths-tickets-88515047891

We are delighted to have the super talented Mad Alice theatre company returning to the library at 2pm on the Saturday 15th February 2020. Their production of Rose and Robin really kept audiences old and young entertained last time they visited and we still remember the lovely music drifting through the library and loads of smiling faces as some of the younger audience told us how much they had enjoyed the show.

Mad Alice Theatre Company develops and produces high quality professional theatre touring to our North East regional as well as national theatres plus schools and community venues.  They specialize in theatre for children and young people and families and have put on outdoor promenade/site specific productions which have been enjoyed by all ages due to their unusual and accessible nature– despite the British Weather!  Mad Alice is a not-for-profit professional Theatre Company created by actress Shelley O’Brien in 2003 and is based in Consett in Co. Durham – her home town. For more information on what they do visit:

https://www.madalicetheatre.co.uk/

Rose and Robin is a lively production for children aged 7 and their grown ups.

From childhood to old age, Rose and Robin have had a wonderful life together – and they want to share it with YOU! 

From sports to stargazing, they’ve enjoyed so much! And most of all, they loved to dance.

They’ve had their bumps in the road, of course, and now Robin can’t remember where they keep the clothes pegs. But that’s all fine, at the end of the day!

Playful and serious, sad and happy, this is a show that celebrates life in all its richness; a story of love and loss, for old and young... especially if you are over seven and have ever lost a sock… Or someone you love.

So, join Rose and Robin through their days of dances and dreams, music and memories. What could possibly go wrong? Well, quite a bit... but don’t worry. You’ll be helping them with some of the moves!

A perfect play for children to enjoy with their grandparents and parents - they were kids once as well!

Tickets are £1.50 to book use our eventbrite page:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mad-alice-theatre-company-presents-rose-and-robin-at-darlington-library-tickets-85971688635

Happy new year from Darlington Library and welcome to the roaring twenty twenties!

This year we have decided to set up a Darlington libraries blog and we would love you to be involved (more information coming soon!) We will be bringing you news and views about our service as well as book reviews, blog takeovers and loads more, we’re really excited to bring you this new platform as well as our twitter, Instagram and Facebook pages. We just know it’s going to help spread the word about what our libraries offer as well as try and engage new audiences.

(Welcome! From the Enthusiastic librarian blogger ??)

Now as we know, New year is all about making resolutions and looking to the year ahead so what better new habit to start than to read more! (Ok, Ok so we are a little biased about that one!) We have already started as we mean to go on by starting our Adult Reading Challenge 2020 and would love for you to be part of it. All you have to do is pick up a challenge card and borrow and read a book in each of the categories. You get the card stamped each time you complete a book and go into a prize draw to win a £25 or £50 voucher at the end of the year. There are lots of genres of books involved so you get the chance to read a favourite and try something new. It’s a nice easy way of starting your reading journey and once you have your library card you can access a whole range of services such as family history programme access, computer access and loads more.

There are so many brilliant ways in which reading is really good for us and our mental health and wellbeing. This video lists many of the great reasons why!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvnqAm1gw7c

Come and say hello soon!