Library

This is New Malden library.

When the vile and heathen Tory government decided to save a relatively small amount of money by closing libraries - as opposed to, say, collecting tax money from large companies - my fear was that they would close this one.

Not because I use it but because this was the first library that I ever used. We - my brother, mother, father and I - all had little brown, cardboard library cards, which were folded to make little pockets. A card was taken out of each book you borrowed and slipped into your library card.

The children's section was a HUGE room on the right as you went in, chock full of books for all ages. Walking in their gave me the same thrill that I would subsequently get when I entered a record shop. A sense of anticipation at searching through a wealth of treasures, any one of which might turn out to be a new but abiding love.

It was here that I first discovered the pleasure of losing myself in a book, of being so immersed that I wasn't even conscious that I was reading; it was like the book was telling me a story. Growing up in suburban London, I could be transported all over the world, in the past present and future.

I'm glad the library's still there, and the one I used later in Worcester Park and the one my kids used in Kirkby Lonsdale. And my heart goes out to everyone who lost there's. Damn you, David Cameron; no matter what you pretend to be, closing the libraries was an act of barbarism.