We are thrilled to welcome Mandy Robotham, USA Today bestselling author of The German Midwife and The Secret Messenger, to the blog for a guest post. The Berlin Girl is her new historical novel set in 1938 Berlin with England on the brink of war, on sale December 8th, 2020. There will also be a Library Hardcover Edition.
A few words from Mandy:
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It’s the smell that always hits first for me—somewhere between the delicious agedness of a second-hand book shop and the crisp fresh pages of a book store. Since my childhood, libraries have delivered that heady cocktail odor, triggering an anticipation of the search through shelves, and then the find—the texture of the slightly weathered cover, sometimes jacketed in plastic. Then, if like me, you are of a certain age you will remember the clunk of the date stamp on the inside leaf and the joy of temporary ownership—mine to devour for two whole weeks! Stories to absorb and bank; me as a caretaker of words.
Libraries features among my earliest memories, when in my nursery school we took turns in marching crocodile fashion over a small field to our local branch to select story books for the week—such a responsibility! Then, the school library as I grew, followed by the monolithic university library where plenty of socializing was done, and sometimes very little work. Just being surrounded by books was enough to inspire.
I marveled from a young age at the ability of writers to sustain a story—that they could engage and excite someone’s attention with words, a jumble of letters that simply spiraled out of their heads and landed in a new and thrilling order! I wanted to be that storyteller for as long as I can remember. Waylaid for many years by life, journalism and midwifery, I got there in the end, and nothing pleases me more to know that others might now be date stamping my books (albeit electronically), to read words that spilled from my fingers. It makes me smile every day.
As a writer, I regularly spend time in the fabulous British Library in London’s King’s Cross, taking a large breath as I go in and marvel at the resources, feeding off the hush as people toil and read and tap on their laptops. In researching my third novel, The Berlin Girl, I spent several days leafing through a whole eighteen-months of the now defunct British newspaper, the News Chronicle, page by page—heavy on the eyes but a perfect way to gauge the country’s feeling of pre-war anxieties.
It’s not always work that sends me on a library pilgrimage; any visit to a foreign city means tracking down a library or two—the main branch of the New York Public Library, with no other purpose than to marvel at its vast, grandiose nature (and a sniff or two, of course), and the equally impressive Boston Public Library. It helps if they have a nice café, in which to sit and marinate in the soup of so many books.
I hope we never lose sight of a place where thoughts and philosophies are certain of a safe haven, where the scribed word has value. Because libraries worldwide are so much more than just bricks and mortar, whether they be very grand, or plain and simple; they mean something—full of people, alive and dead, sentiments that are ancient but still relevant. And we should strive to keep that spirit of the printed page alive for our children and grandchildren in this age of the screen.
Long live libraries, I say (and please can we bottle that smell?).
Cheerio, Mandy x
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Thank you, Mandy!
We recently had opportunity to call Mandy in the UK and record a podcast interview with Affiliate Publisher at HarperCollins 360, Jean Marie Kelly. Listen to the podcast episode below.
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Download an egalley on NetGalley
Be sure to get your LibraryReads votes in by November 1st!
-Lainey
![Rose Carlyle.jpg[91] copy](https://s48612.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/6a0105368f4fef970b026be41e8fc5200d-500wi.jpg "Rose Carlyle.jpg[91] copy")
