Joe Brearley

January has been quite a busy month so far in the library; there has been a lot of biographical work to be getting on with. Recently I have been working through a book about Joe Brearley, ‘the man who taught Harold Pinter’, who was a Johnian and beforehand had a very tiny entry in the ‘Register of Twentieth Century Johnians’. Thanks to the book, ‘Fortune’s Fool’ I have managed to bulk out his record significantly, with his whole career history and details of his travels. He was a fascinating person, and his life around the time of the Second World War was riveting to read about. Although the book is fairly hefty it was relatively easy to browse, and I spent a few hours earlier this week reading the letters to friends and family and the various bits he wrote before he died. I felt very happy as I updated the Register with my newfound information, and I hope more people will be interested to read of him and his life.

This week Rebecca (Butler Project Associate) and I had great fun attending a Zumba class. One of the craziest things I’ve done in a while, I did feel it was a great workout! Looking forward to going next week, though along with step it does leave me feeling a little exhausted by mid week! I’m looking forward to my day off tomorrow, which will hopefully involve a small lie in. The rest of this weekend involves going to Evensong in the College, along with my grandparents and cousin which I am quite excited about as I hear the music is amazing. I am also expecting to enjoy some tasty food at the Galleria restaurant by the river; they have excellent reviews so I am hoping for something enjoyable!

A New Year

Hello All

After such a long time of no blogging I've decided to start a fresh. This week has seen me writing various pieces for the CATALOG website and it's got me in the mood for thinking and typing.

It's been a busy one, in fact the last three weeks since I arrived back in Cambridge have all been productive, despite there being various days spent outside of the library. Together I worked with the other trainees to produce a poster for the libraries@cambridge conference last week, spending a day of my leave before Christmas putting everything together. I've also spent three days up at the Innovation Centre in Cambridge helping Allen, the Lower Library Cataloguer, work through many boxes of books donated to the library. I found this fascinating and would love to get involved with it more, which I have been promised! I've also been working on a project with Fiona in the Biographical Office locating all the past Overseas Visiting Scholars of the College. It's only these last few days I've managed to get on with the general work load and it's quite pleasing to see my 'To do' list shrink a little!

Other than that it's been back to normal, meeting up with friends (and family) for lunches and coffe, going to step aerobics (yay!) and generally trying to get all those bits and pieces done around the house that you just leave until you really have to do them. I've also had the excitement of receiving offers from both Northumbria and Aberystwyth to study with them by distance learning. Now just to see where the rest of this year takes me and what I'll end up doing from August... a little scary thought.