MADAM – Many opinions are expressed on public libraries.

There was an article in The Times on Saturday, November 5, about diversity of use and the loss of the ‘shush’ image.

I was a preschool poppet when I first heard the word library from my maternal grandmother, who related the feelings of awe and pleasure at the sight of so many books when she was a child.

Throughout my life, a public library has been a much appreciated and visited source of reading and learning and information, but these days it is also a second home.

The silence of widowhood is not stimulating, and to be able to go to a library and sit and read among people of like minds counteracts aloneness and offers me comfort and normality; i.e. an adoptive family atmosphere.

Molly Roberts

Stroud