Pontefract's Carnegie Library (1904), the town's first free public library, is an inspirational example of re-use rather than demolition. It closed in 1975, and is now the Pontefract Museum. It is much admired in the Pevsner guide which goes into an unusual amount of detail, calling it an "Art Nouveau treat..[with] a beautiful hall with tiled dado and arches in pea green with pale blue flowers and emerald green trim, and mosaic floor with leafy border. Oak screen and doors with original brass fittings." This embodiment of the immensely rich Carnegie's philanthropy is a reminder of how it is possible for money to 'trickle down' and make literature and culture accessible to all in beautiful surroundings.

When travelling through Stockport on the busy A6, the grand Edwardian Baroque Stockport Central Library (1912-13, Grade II listed) is unmissable. Carnegie gave £10,000 towards the construction of this fabulous building, with bold stripes of local red brick and Portland stone, stained glass, and a huge glazed dome in the reading room. Sadly, because of its location, it is mostly cut off from pedestrians, few of whom no longer walk up and down the main road. It is under threat of closure and removal to a more convenient location, but one hopes that some sort of 'adaptive reuse' can save this remarkable gift to the town.

Earlsdon Library was opened in 1913, one of three Carnegie libraries in Coventry. It is a classic, small, single-storey, welcoming library with a grand entrance and a characterful interior with many original features which were uncovered during restoration work . Despite its local importance and prominent position next to a primary school, it came under repeated threats of closure. Nevertheless, Carnegie's gift and vision were fought for and preserved by local people and, happily, it is now known as the Earlsdon Carnegie Community Library.   

Bideford Free Library (1905, Grade II listed) was a gift to the town from Carnegie. It is in a prominent position on The Quay, one of a group of three important civic buildings including the Town Hall. The Pevsner guide writes that it is 'in quite a playful free Tudor...enlivened by a tower, an...oriel, and a corner balcony and turret'. It's an impressive building which conveys a sense of the high and enduring value of its purpose and contents, and is now managed by the charity Libraries Unlimited.

Scottish-born philanthropist Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) helped fund the construction of more than 660 libraries in the UK and Ireland in order to enable the housing of books and free access to them. The buildings themselves are architecturally fascinating and varied, and these days the libraries are often important and much-needed hubs for local communities. At a time of budget cuts, threats to libraries, and talk - but little evidence of - 'levelling up', it is absolutely vital that they are celebrated and preserved. The world's first Carnegie library was opened in 1883 in Dunfermline, Carnegie's birthplace. It has been recently renovated and expanded to include a free art gallery and museum, but its beautiful reading room (above) is still the core of the building.

Since 1975 Annie Ernaux has lived in Cergy-Pontoise, a new town 30km north west of Paris,  (above, Hôtel de préfecture du Val-d'Oise, opened 1970). As the author of this article says, "Ernaux’s insistence that we find a key to unlock the secrets of modern social and emotional lives in the new-town grocery queue, the hairdresser’s salon, or the crowded Tube carriage, counts as a quietly revolutionary act". For her, “a supermarket can provide just as much meaning and truth as a concert hall”, words which are underlined by the Nobel citation, “for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory”

Les Années (2008, translated as The Years, 2018) a good place to begin with Annie Ernaux' work. Although it is often categorised as autofiction, Ernaux rejects this label, saying that she brings together both the personal and the collective. Such is her ability to condense the 'lived dimension of history' from 1940 to 2006, non-French readers will also recognise so much of the postwar evolution and detail. Les Années is published by Gallimard as part of its classic Collection Blanche which, like Persephone Books, uses the same instantly recognisable cover design for every book in the series.