St Deiniol’s Library, Hawarden

Outlines the history of St Deiniol’s Library, Hawarden, UK which celebrated its centenary in 1996. States how the library was essentially the product of the retirement, between 1894 and 1898, of the great Victorian statesman, W.E. Gladstone. Seeks to describe the last efforts of the “Grand Old Man” (GOM) ‐ liberated finally from the responsibilities of high political office ‐ to create at his beloved Hawarden a fitting memorial to those values of study and learning which had always been close to his life and his character. Today a recognized theological college of the Church of England, the Library (still containing 30,000 of Gladstone’s own books) nevertheless persists essentially as a reflection of Gladstone’s own mind and outlook. It is also a residential library: perhaps the only one of its kind in the world. Still attracting readers from all over the world, it may help to remind us that Gladstone himself might have made a good librarian, as well as a good Prime Minister, or even a good Archbishop of Canterbury.