Killing Time at the Bodleian

By David E Lawrence

If he really is all alone overnight in Oxford's famous old library, then who is that in the dark, and what do they want?

• Language: English
• Publisher: David E Lawrence
• Release date: May 15, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005921804

David E Lawrence

Born in Rugby I live in Oxford where I worked in book publishing taking early retirement as Production Director.I now write for pleasure and for local outlets and sites such as this one. My favourite authors are CS Lewis, Haruki Murakami and Frederick Forsyth. I also compile cryptic crosswords and listen to a whole lot of music especially rock and jazz.

Book preview

Killing Time at the Bodleian

by

David E Lawrence

Copyright 2021 David Lawrence

Smashwords Edition

KILLING TIME AT THE BODLEIAN

Well here I am…alone at last.

The satisfying click of the door told its own story. Locked inside one of the world’s greatest libraries, I felt a glow of anticipation. I vaulted one of the security barriers and switched on the lights. Nothing! So far so predictable, chaps. I switched on my pencil torch and made my way up the creaky wooden stairwell. With my knapsack over one shoulder, I took the steps two at a time as the stairwell doglegged up to the Lower Reading Room, a regular port of call.

I pushed through the doors and lit my way past ranks of four-in-a-row desk units between floor-to-ceiling bookcases lining every wall. I could hear them chattering: the world’s most influential philosophers, Kant, Wittgenstein, Russell, Sartre…and a hundred unknown souls, at least to me, nine tiers of knowledge and genius.

Once the centre of collegiate life as both school and library, the Main Bodleian is a horseshoe on two floors at the back of Wren’s