A unique way to connect with the collection
Containing over one million volumes and with around 6,000 new titles added every year, the London Library’s book collection is a unique and evolving resource, developed through 180 years of careful thought.
Adopting or sponsoring a book is the perfect way to share in and support this rich collection. Choose a favourite book to adopt or pick from our list of sponsorship options. All funds go towards the care of the collection.
Adopt a Book £175/£250
Choose any book on our open access shelves to adopt in your name, or as a gift for someone else.
Whether it’s a childhood favourite, a recent find, a beloved classic or simply a book that is special to you, adopting a book from our collection is a unique way of celebrating a personal relationship with a written work.
You will receive:
- A permanent bookplate with the adopter’s name inside your chosen book
- A printed certificate confirming your adoption
- A letter of thanks from our Collection Care team
- A discount on London Library membership
- A tour of the Library for the adopter and a guest (higher fee applies)
Once acquired, we almost never get rid of a book, so adopting a book creates a lasting connection with the Library.
Browse the catalogue here to find a book to adopt.
Sponsor a Book £30
Since 1841, The London Library and its book collections have provided inspiration and support for writers of all kinds. If you would like to contribute to the care and maintenance of the collection, sponsoring a book for yourself or as a gift is an ideal way to do so. Choose from a selection of titles spanning the Library’s history, all written by Library members.
A S Byatt – Possession: A Romance (1990)
Possession begins in The London Library, a place described in the novel as ‘shabby but civilised’.
Daphne du Maurier – Rebecca (1938)
‘Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.’ So begins Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, a Gothic romance novel narrated by a nameless young woman.
Ian Fleming – On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1963)
The tenth James Bond book features a cameo from a London Library book.
Antonia Fraser – The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1992)
This account of the Tudor king and his six wives is one of Library Vice President Antonia Fraser’s most popular biographies.
Kazuo Ishiguro – The Remains of the Day (1989)
Ishiguro’s subtle, revealing novel was inspired by a book found while browsing the Library’s stacks.
CLR James – Beyond a Boundary (1963)
Often called the best book on sports ever written, this work marries memoir with social history.
Patrick Leigh Fermor – A Time of Gifts (1977)
When he was 18, Patrick Leigh Fermor walked from the Hook of Holland to Istanbul, and forty-four years later recounted this journey in A Time of Gifts.
Virginia Woolf – A Room of One’s Own (1929)
First given as a pair of lectures, this book-length essay by Virginia Woolf is a landmark text in feminist literary theory.
You will receive:
- A personalised digital sponsorship certificate containing information about your chosen book
- A follow-up communication from our Collection Care team detailing some of the conservation work your sponsorship has contributed to
Sponsor a Book is coming soon
Please note:
- Although we endeavour to fulfil your book of choice for Adopt a Book, some books may already have existing bookplates. Where this occurs, we will suggest a suitable alternative
- Books in the special collections are not available for Adopt a Book
- Please allow up to three months for your bookplate to be placed in the book
- Tours must be booked in advance and are dependent on Library staff availability
Other ways to support the collection
If you are interested in making a one-off donation towards book acquisitions or conservation cost, please click here.
To set up a regular donation to support the purchase of books for the Library or make a larger donation to support the development and care of the collection, please contact our Development team directly on 020 7766 4795 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
This transformative project will enable more readers, writers and thinkers to benefit from The London Library’s extensive resources.
Support the future of The London Library →
Your Legacy in Six Words
Gifts in wills play a vital role in securing The London Library’s future and ensuring that the Library remains a haven of creativity and community for readers, writers and thinkers for generations to come. To encourage members to think about how they might like to be remembered and whether a gift to the Library could form part of their legacy, Library trustee Daisy Goodwin is sponsoring and judging a prize for the best piece of flash fiction on the theme of ‘How you want to be remembered’. The winning entry will receive a prize of £500.
Flash fiction is an extremely brief form of fiction — telling a story in no more than six words. A famous example is attributed to Ernest Hemingway: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” The six words include prepositions and conjunctions.
All current members of The London Library are invited to enter for the prize. Please read the eligibility criteria and submission guidelines before submitting your entry. To be considered, you must send your entry, along with your name, in the body of an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., making sure to follow the submission guidelines. The deadline for submissions is 11am on Friday 12 November 2021. The winner and runners up will be announced in the Library newsletter and on social media in December.
If you have any questions about the prize, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. If you would like to find out more about leaving a gift in your will to The London Library, please call 020 7766 4795, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit our gifts in wills webpage.
We will look forward to receiving your entry.
Your Library, Your Legacy
If you are thinking about leaving a gift to The London Library in your will, thank you. Gifts in wills play a vital role in securing the Library’s future and are a very special way of ensuring that the Library remains a haven of creativity and community for readers, writers and thinkers for generations to come.
The London Library is the largest independent lending library in the world, home to over a million books and manuscripts, from bestselling fiction and cutting-edge research to thousands of rare volumes that are many centuries old. Our collection and beautiful building have inspired and served as a creative and intellectual resource for some of the world’s most important and best loved writers and thinkers, from Charles Darwin, Virginia Woolf and T.S. Eliot to Christabel Pankhurst, Bram Stoker and Angela Carter. Membership of the Library continues to attract and support the work of the brightest lights in fields as diverse as medicine, music, science, law, literature and art. A gift in your will is a wonderful opportunity to safeguard the Library’s unique collection and ensure that it can continue to inspire the curiosity and creativity of future generations.
Leaving a gift to the Library
Your will might contain some of the most important words you ever write. After making provision for family, friends and loved ones, your will gives you the chance to support the causes that are most important to you. Leaving a gift to The London Library is a way for you to build an incredible and lasting legacy for the writers, readers and thinkers of the future. As a charitable bequest, a gift to the Library will also reduce or eliminate the inheritance tax liability on your estate.
There a number of different ways to leave a gift to the Library in your will.
Residuary bequest - a gift of a percentage share, or the whole, of your estate after debts, expenses and other gifts have been distributed
Pecuniary bequest - a donation of a fixed sum of money or shares
Specific bequest- a gift of a particular item, such as a painting, royalties or a historical document
We have provided suggested wordings for pecuniary, residuary and specific gifts, as well as a wealth of information about how gifts in wills make a difference to the Library, in our free legacies leaflet.
If you considering leaving a specific item to the Library, please telephone 020 7766 4795 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to ensure that the Library will be able to accept and provide a suitable home for your gift.
Writing a will need not be complicated, but we strongly recommend you seek professional legal advice to ensure your will reflects your wishes and is valid.
Thank you
Gifts in wills make a huge difference to the Library’s future, its collection and, most importantly, its readers. Your support is truly appreciated.
If you have already left a gift to The London Library in your will, thank you. We are immensely grateful for your support. It is very helpful for us to know when someone is planning to leave a legacy to the Library, so please do consider letting us know your intentions. We would be delighted to have the opportunity to thank you for your generosity, invite you to special supporters’ events and send you advance updates on important developments at the Library.
If you would like to get in touch with our fundraising team to discuss your gift, let us know your intentions or find out more about leaving a gift in your will, please call 020 7766 4795 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Help us Refresh and Restore the Collection
April 2024 Update
Thanks to those who have donated to the 2023/24 Refresh & Restore Library Fund appeal, we have raised just under £140,000 towards restoring and refreshing our magnificent collection.
The funds raised from this campaign will be used over the next three years to develop our existing collection, and to care for items in need of repair. One exceptionally precious item which has already been repaired is our copy of Henry VIII’s Defence of the Seven Sacraments. The book is a scathing response to the critique of the church published by Martin Luther in 1520. In it, Henry defends the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church and refers to Luther as ‘a wolf of hell’ and ‘a poisonous viper.’ Published in 1521, this text earned Henry the title ‘Defender of the Faith’ from Pope Leo X.
(Above) Henry VIII’s Defence of the Seven Sacraments
Our copy bears not only the Royal coat of arms and the Tudor Rose, but also the pomegranate insignia that belonged to Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII’s first wife. This marks it as significant for two reasons. Firstly, it must have been published before Henry VIII's attempts to divorce Catherine; secondly, it is rare for having survived the large-scale removal of Catherine’s symbol once Anne Boleyn came to power.
Previously, the book was bound too tightly, which not only made it difficult to open but was also damaging the pages. The picture below shows the inner left joint splitting. Restoration work has consolidated and protected the leather binding. The pages have been repaired and resewn together, and the papier mache spine has been repaired as well.
Further updates will follow over the ensuing three years, as the totals raised from the Library Fund is spent to Refresh & Restore our collection.
Refresh and Restore
The London Library’s collection is truly unique. Developed through 180 years of careful thought from generations of Library staff, trustees and members, today the collection holds around 1 million volumes. The depth and range of the collection along with the liberal access members enjoy are what make the Library such a special and treasured resource.
We take pride in the strength of the collection and its accessibility and know that everyone involved with the Library cherishes the books on our shelves. With that in mind, we are eager to do more and have identified some key projects to Refresh and Restore the collection. We hope to raise £80,000 to kick-start these projects over a period of years – any donation you can make to The Library Fund will help us reach this goal.
Refresh
We want to develop new areas of the collection and strengthen others in line with feedback from members. Our primary focus is on maintaining the core strengths of the collection, so we need help to develop our reach beyond this:
- Broadening cultural representation in art, history and literature and increasing the contemporary and diverse voices in fiction, literature, drama and poetry
- Replacing key books identified as missing during a book tagging project to get them back on the shelves for member use
- Spending funds raised over a period of years, gauging interest in different subjects and approaches
Restore
A major challenge for the Library is caring for the collection while maintaining open access and borrowing for members. We need help with two distinct projects to support this:
Rebinding
• The Library’s book tagging project revealed many books in urgent need of rebinding
• These books are on open access shelves and need new bindings to make sure they remain useable and accessible
• A donation of £100 could help give three volumes new bindings Conservation
Conservation
• Our collection care team have identified a small number of books in need of specialist conservation work which can’t be carried out in-house
• Most volumes are special collections items published before 1750 and are available for use by Library members
• A donation of £500 could help us restore one of these volumes
What is the Library Fund?
The Library Fund is an annual fundraising appeal focused on improving the Library in ways that directly impact its users. How people use the Library is at the heart of what makes it a special institution. Supporters of The Library Fund help improve the Library’s collections, services and spaces to enhance enjoyment of the Library.
Find out more about past Library Fund projects.
