Details of some of the talks and research papers we have given follow.
2013: Reading in common: everyday reading in Sheffield (1920-1960) by Mary Grover. Mary presented this paper at ‘Everydayness and the Event’ (August 29 – September 1) the fifteenth annual Modernist Studies Association conference held at Sussex University, UK.
2016: ‘Even Edgar may be discovered’: The fiction policy of an English public library in the 1930s Val Hewson presented this paper at The Auden Generation and After conference, Sheffield Hallam University, 17 June 2016.
‘Quite honest…and most carefully done’ – A survey of children’s reading in Sheffield (1937-38) Val presented this paper at the Femorabilia Study Day and Symposium, Liverpool John Moores University, 22 October 2016
2018: The Magic Story Book and The Tuesday Club Letter Val researched the productio n of the Christmas play, The Magic Story Book, by Sheffield library staff Kath (Hunt) Kay and Olive Phillips, in Walkley Library in 1949 and Woodhouse Library in 1950. Kath also ran the Tuesday Club in Upperthorpe Library in the 1980s and 1990s.
Running Up Eyre Street: Sheffield Reading and the Second World War On 21 September 2018, Reading Sheffield’s chair, Mary Grover, gave a paper by her and Val Hewson at The Leeds Library’s conference to celebrate its 250th anniversary.
Sheffield Reading History: Unitarians, Book Societies and some Extraordinary Women Reading Sheffield members Sue Roe and Loveday Herridge gave a talk on 9 September as part of the Heritage Open Days (HODs) Festival 2018 about Sheffield’s first community libraries which flourished in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
2020: Charles Dickens in Thirties Sheffield. In October 2020, Mary Grover gave a talk to the University Women’s Group about Sheffield readers and the novels of Charles Dickens.
2021: Recipe Books: easily overlooked heritage. In September 2021 Val Hewson gave a paper at Inheriting the Family’s ‘The Books That Bring Us Together’ seminar series. Here is a link to watch the seminar.
Reading Sheffield Interviews: Here are the prompts used for the interviews with Sheffield readers.