Bowes, Barry. Between the Stacks (London: Jay Landesman, 1979) 192 p.

Everyday life at the Pike Lane (North London) Branch Library is the subject of this amusing novel. The staff includes librarian Andy Egge, children's librarian Gail Marsden, and music librarian Phil Fellowes

Gay by inclination, and morose by nature. If Gail is the penguin, Phil, with his sharp features, pale skin, spectacles and black Van Dyck beard, is the stork. When they happen to be walking side-by-side you can't help wondering if they will embark on some strange dance like something from the world of Edward Lear. (p. 9).

The library assistants are Mick Inkerman, Liz Lamble, Marianne, Mr. Knox, Gary Clee, and Rina O'Rourke ("Non-professional staff can also be shunted from branch to branch, but it doesn't affect their career prospects; they don't have any." p. 104). The narrator, who fails to tell us his name, is the senior assistant librarian. The staff must endure every imaginable library ordeal: book thieves, vandals, a leaky roof, would-be censors, would-be book donors, drunks, teeth grinders, "nutters," The Smeller, The Surveyor (so named because all he does is sit and look around), and the Phantom Farter, to name but a few. The narrator writes an article analyzing different types of book browsers: "Selection from the lower shelves necessitates much crouching. Readers who spot something a little further on, at the same level, will perform a duck waddle, with a book clamped between the knees or resting on one thigh." (p. 139). The book is full of wry observations on the life of librarians, as, "For years we librarians have hovered in the background, casting short shadows and envious eyes towards civil servants. Status is a problem. At one time we may have just crept into the same category of respectability as teachers, bank managers, doctors and solicitors. This was to say, a librarian was beyond reproach because he was in no position to indulge in graft, corruption, immorality or smoking. There aren't many of us ruined by the fruits of affluence." (p. 5-6).