British Library Blues

Saturday, July 05, 2008

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I yield to no one in my affection for the British Library, where I spend many hours working and in our (justifiably) twitchy age I fully understand the need to search bags on entry. (Although, let’s face it, the BL strikes me as quite a strange choice for a would-be suicide bomber... “I know, let’s murder the bookish!”) But the officiousness of some of the security-guards occasionally strays into farce, as they fumble self-importantly through obscure pockets and long-forgotten corners of rucksacks, yet don’t bother checking laptops and wave through people, wearing heavy winter-coats, as I have seen them do on many occasions. Give a man a walkie-talkie and he goes a little bit crazy. I’m waiting for the day a Jack-Bauer-with-a-library-staff-pass greets me at the door with the question: “Did you pack that pencil case yourself, sir?”

Posted by James Silver - On Saturday, July 05, 2008

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