Skip to main content
Gifts from The Morning Star
Treasure troves of ideas
Public libraries are sanctuaries which facilitate the exploration of the universe of ideas for free for those curious enough. ROGER McKENZIE advocates their protection against authoritarian incursions, US style
SYMBOLIC: Chetham's Library, Manchester, United Kingdom founded in 1653 [Mike Peel/CC]

MY DEN, my safe space, is the room where I work and/or play jazz music most days.

I have a laptop, my saxophones and guitar in the room but the greatest thing is that I am surrounded by my books. My wife Kate sometimes ribs me about just how many books I do have — I have never counted them. But she sometimes says that I have too many.

I beg to differ. As far as I’m concerned the problem is never that I have too many books. The real issue is a lack of bookshelves!

Coventry Central Library. Credit: Libraries Taskforce/flickr/CC
The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
FLAGGING POWER OF THE WEST: Nigerian and US soldiers raise their respective flags at a US military base in the country in 2018; last year, at the demand of the new transitional government of General Abdurahmane Tchiani, all US troops left. Photo: Africom
Features / 7 August 2025
7 August 2025

ROGER McKENZIE reports on the west African country, under its new anti-imperialist government, taking up the case for compensation for colonial-era massacres

Relatives of Palestinian child Salem Hussein, 12, killed in an Israeli army bombardment of Gaza, mourn beside his body at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, July 22, 2025
North Africa / 24 July 2025
24 July 2025

For Egypt trade trumps the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians, but how long can the country’s ‘misleaders’ – and others in the region – continue their indifference against the popular will of their own people, asks ROGER McKENZIE

Sudanese displaced families take shelter in a school after being evacuated by the Sudanese army from areas once controlled by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in Omdurman, Sudan, March 23, 2025
Northeast Africa / 11 July 2025
11 July 2025
Similar stories
The crowd at Manchester Punk Festival 2024
Culture / 11 April 2025
11 April 2025
Ben Cowles speaks with IAN ‘TREE’ ROBINSON and ANDY DAVIES, two of the string pullers behind the Manchester Punk Festival, ahead of its 10th year show later this month
RESILIENCE: (Right) Stand Up To Racism protest on October 26
Features / 31 December 2024
31 December 2024
The Morning Star sorts the good eggs from the rotten scoundrels of the year
Aboubakar Traore
Global Routes / 2 December 2024
2 December 2024
Two new releases from Burkina Faso and Niger, one from French-based Afro Latin The Bongo Hop, and rare Mexican bootlegs
Cockle pickers back at work on the sands of Morcambe Bay, La
Culture / 5 October 2024
5 October 2024
The Bard pays homage to the sands of Morecambe, for the talent they have nourished, and in memory of the Chinese workers they engulfed