Member Notice: Scheduled Maintenance on Catalyst – 21st December

Essential maintenance work is planned for Saturday, 21 December 2024, from 05:00 to 18:00. For extended periods during this time, Library members will not be able to access eResources through Catalyst.

What does this mean for you?

• If you are logged in and try to access eResources via Catalyst links, you’ll likely see an error message.
• Going directly to an eResource without using Catalyst won’t work either, as you won’t be able to log in as a Library member.
• Other parts of Catalyst, such as searching the catalogue, will still work as normal.

We’re sorry for any disruption this might cause. If you plan to use eResources, we recommend doing so outside this maintenance window.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

On 4 December, Library Vice President Alexandra Shulman and Chair of Trustees Simon Godwin hosted Library supporters at the President’s Christmas Party. The annual event, held in our atmospheric Reading Room, celebrates and thanks the vibrant community of people who support The London Library through their philanthropy. Guests enjoyed readings from Andrew O’Hagan, Olivia Williams and Stephen Fry and music from Johnny Flynn & The Sheldrakes. 

Founders’ Circle patrons are first on the guestlist for the biannual President’s parties, in addition to being invited to a varied programme of exclusive events in and outside the Library. To find out more, please visit the Patrons webpage or contact our Patrons team at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Meanwhile at the members’ Christmas Party on Wednesday 11 December, members toasted the festive season with drinks, nibbles and readings from Library Trustee, actress, director, lecturer and award-winning writer Anni Domingo and bestselling novelist and freelance TV executive Samuel Burr.  

Samuel read from his internationally bestselling debut novel, The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers, and Anni read The Boy Who Laughed At Santa Claus, by Ogden Nash, a light-hearted poem that warns of the dangers of mocking the man in red.

The London Library is proud to announce the publication of the fifth annual volume of From the Silence of the Stacks, New Voices Rise, an anthology of work from the 2023-24 cohort of The London Library Emerging Writers Programme. A digital version of the anthology is available now on The London Library website, on Kindle and a hard copy is available to buy through the online shop. All proceeds go towards supporting the Emerging Writers Programme.

The anthology showcases 38 exciting new voices and a diverse range of writing which spans fiction, poetry, memoir, narrative non-fiction, playwriting, screenwriting, writing for children and young adults and, for the first time, translation. The contributions delve into a vast array of histories, ideas, cultures, landscapes and real and imaginary worlds. Tales of war and climate change, colonialism and politics, home and migration, sex, death and food traverse time, cross the globe and are told in a multitude of forms. 

Contributors to the fifth volume include 2023 Tony Craze award-winning playwright Maryam Garad, Rosie Kellett, whose cookbook In for Dinner will be published in 2025, Eric Gregory Award-winning poet Yanita Georgieva and 2023 Guardian/4th Estate Short Story Prize winner Tian Yi.

40 participants were selected from a field of almost 1,400 applicants, a record-breaking number, by a panel of judges comprising poet and playwright Caroline Bird, screenwriter, playwright and children’s author Moira Buffini, non-fiction writer Travis Elborough, novelist and short story writer Zoe Gilbert, novelist Ayisha Malik, and literary agents at Aitken Alexander Emma Paterson and Chris Wellbelove. 

The London Library’s Emerging Writers Programme is a year-long programme, geared towards supporting writers who have not yet published a full-length work of fiction, non-fiction, collection of poems, or had a full-length work professionally produced for stage or screen. Participants benefit from one year’s free membership of The London Library alongside a programme of writing development and networking opportunities, peer support, and guidance.

Membership to The London Library includes: access to its collection of around one million books and periodicals (almost all of which can be borrowed), a vast eLibrary, atmospheric workspaces in a beautiful building, a members’ suite, free nationwide postal loans, and discounted tickets to the Library’s popular public events programme. The annual Emerging Writers Anthology celebrates each member of the Programme by showcasing extracts from projects they worked on throughout the year.

Previous members of The London Library Emerging Writers Programme have gone on to achieve considerable success. Published or soon to be published writers include novelists Abi Daré, Amber Medland, Lianne Dillsworth, Russell Franklin, Krystle Zara Appiah, Sarah Marsh, Flora Carr, Katie Buckley, Lucy Steeds, Carole Hailey, Xenobe Purvis, Eli Zuzovsky, Thomas Peermohamed Lambert and Lisa Smith; poets Anastasia Taylor-Lind, Isabelle Baafi, Oakley Flanagan,Natalie Linh Bolderston, Courtney Conrad, Helen Bowell, Lisa Kiew, Eve Ellis and Zakia Carpenter-Hall; non-fiction writers Marina Gerner, Gaar Adams, Sarah Clegg, Alexis Keir, Harriet Rix, Carla Montemayor and Grace Quantock; graphic novelists Ella Baron and Miriam Gold; children’s writers Gita Raleigh, Gayathiri Kalamakanthan and Natasha Hastings; and screenwriters and playwrights who have had work commissioned and/or produced across TV/film, radio and stage include Paolo Chianta, Ayad Andrews, Megan Smith, Daniel Marc Janes, Sid Sagar, Esohe Uwadiae, Jess Edwards, Zia Holloway and Temo Majekodunmi.

Claire Berliner, Head of Programming says: “This year’s anthology is another stunning collection of work from the outgoing cohort of Emerging Writers. It is full of beautifully written, insightful and revelatory pieces, wide and diverse in scope and a testament to the richness of the Programme, the spirit of The London Library and the talent of each one of these wonderful writers as they head into a bright literary future.”

In total, The London Library’s Emerging Writers Programme has supported 238 previously unpublished writers. Applications for the next London Library Emerging Writers Programme will open on 9 January 2025.