PNR 285 – editorial (September-October 2025)
Why was I so affected by the story of the beetle infestation of the millennium-old Hungarian Pannonhalma Archabbey? It has something to do with the way in which the sudden disturbance in the permanency of a library affects the stability of the librarian and the readers themselves.
When at the start of this century I moved apartments in Manchester, the men from Pickford’s sized up my meagre furnishings and gave me an estimate. It was so reasonable that I drew to their attention the book-lined walls.
‘All that’s to come with us.’
‘That’s fine,’ they said. ‘We’ve taken it into account.’
In the end there were fifty-seven cases of books to be moved two streets, from a fourth-floor flat in Granby Row to a fourth-floor flat on Sackville Street. The movers had not factored in how much books weigh, how much space the flat little rectangles multiplied a few thousand times fill. To make matters worse, early in the move the Sackville Street lift failed. Moving furniture was a doddle but the books were worse than any albatross.