Christopher Gray on the literary locals who have booked in for Stepping In: Making a Difference to Our Library

A rallying call to help a library is always likely to gain the support of writers. And with so many of these in Oxford, the campaign to help Summertown Library was hopefully not going to lack high-profile helpers.

In fact, a line-up of writers fit to headline at any top literary festival will take to the North Wall stage for Stepping In: Making a Difference to Our Library.

All novelists, they enthusiastically responded to a request for help from one of their number, Tim Pears. Only thing is, he has no idea what Mark Haddon, Margaret Drabble and Barbara Trapido — all of them ‘locals’ — will be doing.

“I haven’t got a clue what they are talking about,” he says. “I thought it would be fun to just say we have these brilliant people coming along and we’ll all have a surprise on the night.

“They could be reading from one of their books, new or old. Perhaps they will talk about the importance of public libraries. I am looking forward as much as anybody to seeing what they will do.”

Tim has a clear idea about his contribution to the evening, which is being compered by the BBC arts editor Will Gompertz, another ‘local’.

“My latest book, In the Light of Morning, is my first historical novel. It has a Second World War setting, which involved a lot of researching.

“Some of this has an interesting Oxford connection. It focuses on Winston Churchill and how he came to back Tito in Yugoslavia.

“I enjoyed the researching so much that I almost got lost inside the Bodleian Library. I could have sat there for years, but I had to drag myself out and get on with writing the novel.”

Tim was invited to join the library campaign by its leader Marcus Ferrar. The initial purpose had been to fight closure which, when won, led on to efforts to finance improvements.

Tim, who lives with his family (and two dogs) in Banbury Road, is enthusiastic about the library.

“It’s really strange how you struggle to recognise what has always been staring you in the face. We are really lucky with South Parade, which beside the library has the North Wall theatre and arts centre, fine restaurants, a book shop, a wine bar, a cafe and an excellent art gallery, all in a short street.”

Tim’s three fellow novelists all live not far away. Marl Haddon is best known as author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, the winner of the Whitbread Book of the Year award, which has now been turned into a West End play. His atest novel, The Red House, was published in 2012.

Margaret Drabble is the author of 18 novels, including the prize-winning Jerusalem the Golden and The Millstone, as well as much non-friction, including biographies of Arnold Bennett and Angus Wilson. She became a Dame Commander of the British Empire six years ago.

Barbara Trapido’s novels include the semi-autobiographical novel Frankie & Stankie, dealing with growing up, as she did, under apartheid in South Africa. A number of her other books have Oxford connections. Her most recent novel, Sex & Stravinsky, was published in 2010.