Chapter 16 — Our Library
We collected all the books on the subject of relationships, loneliness, sexuality and disability over the years and kept a library which could be accessed by our members by post (sometimes swapping books at the lunches). On the whole, members were good at returning the books, and the system worked well. With the onset of the internet, borrowing declined and we stopped the library system around 2005. When we moved out of the office in 2012, I shipped books I valued up to my office in Scotland.
Sadly. Heslinger’s classic, the first book on disability and sexual relationships, Not Made of Stone was lost. Current treasures include Blue Remembered Hills, a recollection by Rosemary Sutcliffe 1984 Rosemary had juvenile arthritis and was a member of Outsiders before she died; Sexual Options for Paraplegics and Quadriplegics 1975 is still with us, as is Families and How to Survive Them 1983 by Robin Skinner and John Cleese. Robin was John Cleese’s psychotherapist. He had a stroke in later life and became one of our Patrons before he died. He was up in our Shoredich office in a meeting when the lift broke and I had to help him down the four flights of stairs!