The Library is now offering eBooks to enhance access to material available to members. In the Member Survey carried out earlier this year, nearly 60% of respondents expressed an interest in using eBooks. Equally, the Coronavirus situation has reinforced the importance of online content at a time when accessing physical collections can be more difficult. Our online journals and resources are already very heavily used by members.

We are working with OverDrive to extend into eBooks, and we have identified a number of titles that are in high demand in the Library and have purchased additional copies as eBooks. We have also purchased some fiction and non-fiction that we see circulating quite highly in the Library, such as books which have been nominated for, or won, awards of various kinds. Additionally, we have included a set of classics that are being made freely available by Duke Classics during the pandemic.

Members can access our eBook selection either through the OverDrive website, or through an app called Libby. Through the OverDrive website, members are welcome to make recommendations regarding new eBooks for the Library to acquire from the entire OverDrive catalogue, similar to our book suggestions scheme. This function is not yet available in the Libby app. 
 
To start using our eBooks, download the Libby app, or go to londonlibrary.overdrive.com. With the Libby app, search for and select ‘The London Library’ and you will be able to log in using your membership number and PIN. With the website you can simply click on ‘Sign in’ and then enter your membership number and PIN.

You may ‘borrow’ up to 10 eBooks at any one time, and these are separate from and additional to your London Library loans. Loans are for 14 days, and you can renew and place holds, and configure how you want notifications to come from OverDrive regarding your account. Your eBooks will not appear on Catalyst, so you will need to search OverDrive separately from our print collection.

FIND OUT MORE

The London Library has appointed Melanie Stoutzker (@MelStoutzker) as Fundraising Director.

With more than 25 years as a development professional, Melanie has extensive experience working on a range of fundraising projects with organisations in the heritage, cultural, arts, research, health and charity sectors.

Her appointment comes at a pivotal time for the Library as it delivers an ambitious strategic plan to secure the Library’s long term financial sustainability and enhance its position as one of the world’s great literary institutions.

Melanie comments: “I’m tremendously excited about the Library’s mission and the potential to grow its philanthropic income. I look forward to working with colleagues and the board to raise funds and help achieve the Library’s ambitions, and to build on the wonderful support of its members, donors and ambassadors.”

Sir Howard Davies, Chairman, said, “The London Library is a uniquely important creative centre which receives no public funds, so increasing our philanthropic support will be critical to the Library’s future success. Melanie’s considerable knowledge of capital and revenue fundraising will help us achieve our exciting plans.“

Philip Marshall, Director of The London Library, commented, “Melanie brings a wealth of fundraising experience which will be invaluable as we embark on our 180th anniversary in 2021 and our ambitious plans to develop the Library’s facilities and expand our role as a uniquely accessible literary and cultural resource.”

The London Library is one of the country’s greatest literary institutions providing a centre of creativity, inspiration and ideas for nearly two hundred years. It has had a unique impact on the country’s literary and artistic output and continues to do so today.

For more information or comment, please contact Laura Creyke at MHM on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The London Library is renowned as a centre of creativity and we’re always keen to showcase some of the many works that get produced here. A number of our members have been in touch recently, letting us know about new books they are publishing this Autumn. 

If you are a Member and have a new book coming out soon then we’d love to here from you, please email us on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Coming up in Autumn 2020

The Confession, Jessie Burton

Picador, September 2020 

Britain and Europe in Troubled Times, Vernon Bogdanor

Yale University Press, September 2020

Life & Love of the Forest, Lewis Blackwell

September 2020

Jeoffry: The Poet’s Cat - A Biography, Oliver Soden

The History Press, September 2020

Lev Shestov: Philosopher of the Sleepless Night, Matthew Beaumont

September 2020

The Museum Curator’s Guide - Understanding, Managing and Presenting Objects, Nicola Pickering

Lund Humphries, September 2020

The Golden Calves of Jeraboam, Adrian Leak

September 2020

Japan's Far More Female Future, Bill Emmott

Oxford University Press, September 2020

Reluctant European: Britain and the European Union from 1945 to Brexit, Stephen Wall

Oxford University Press, September 2020

The Fragrance of Tears, Victoria Schofield

Head of Zeus, October 2020

My Dearest Martha: The Life and Letters of Eliza Hillier, Andrew Hillier

Hong Kong City University Press, October 2020

After Ancient Biography: Modern Types and Classical Archetypes, Robert Fraser

Palgrave Macmillan, October 2020

Hotel du Cap Eden Roc, Alexandra Campbell

Flammarion, October 2020

Dangerous Lunatics: Trauma, Criminality, and Forensic Psychotherapy, Professor Brett Kahr

Confer Books, Autumn 2020

Heads and Boxes: A Prop Art Exhibition Collaboration, Essay by Jill Longmate

Published in ‘Brigid Brophy: Avant-Garde Writer, Critic, Activist’, edited by Richard Canning and Gerri Kimber. Edinburgh University Press, 2020

The Novotny Papers: Prostitute/Provocateur, Lilian Pizzichini

Amberley, Spring 2021

Published recently in 2020

Those Who Are Loved, Victoria Hislop

Paperback published by Headline Review, August 2020

Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind, Tom Holland

Paperback published by Little Brown, August 2020

Elitism A Progressive Defence, Eliane Glaser

Biteback Books, August 2020

The Financial Times Guide to Business Coaching, Anne Scoular

Financial Times, August 2020

If I Don’t Have You, Sareeta Dominga

Jacaranda, July 2020

Bad Love, Maame Blue

Jacaranda, June 2020

Night of the Bayonets: The Texel Uprising and Hitler's Revenge April - May 1945, Eric Lee

Greenhill, April 2020

Mediating Empire, Andrew Hillier

Renaissance Books, April 2020

Smoke and Mirrors, Gemma Milne

Little Brown, April 2020

Dionysus after Nietzsche: The Birth of Tragedy in Twentieth-Century Literature and Thought, Adam Lecznar

Cambridge University Press, March 2020

Magnificence and Princely Splendour in the Middle Ages, Richard Barber

Boydell & Brewer, March 2020

The Girl with the Louding Voice, Abi Daré 

Sceptre, February 2020

Strange Antics: A History of Seduction, Clement Knox

William Collins, February 2020

Escape Routes, Naomi Ishiguro

Tinder Press, February 2020 (Paperback January 2021)

John of Garland’s ‘De Triumphis Ecclesie’, Martin Hall

Brepols, February 2020

The Smart Woman’s Guide to Murder, Victoria Dowd

Joffe Books 2020

EW Hornung: The Emergence of a Popular Author 1866-98, Peter Rowland

Academic Press, December 2019

Nourishing the Nation: Food as National Identity in Catalonia, Venetia Congdon

Berghahn Books, December 2019

Excellent Essex: In Praise of Britain's Most Misunderstood County, Gillian Darley

Old Street Publishing, Hardback 2019; Paperback, Spring 202