July —September, 2019 Quarterly Events, Exhibitions & Treasures from the Collection Features 4 Note from the Librarian The Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society 5 Library News Autumn 2019 Programme Highlights Quarterly 6 Member’s Research July—September, 2019 Nicola Higgins Nicola Kane 7 Exhibition Thursday 3rd October 2019 - RNCM Making the News: Delivering the future: Greater Manchester’s Transport Strategy Reading between the lines Since the industrial revolution and the world’s first passenger railway services, transport has from Peterloo to Meskel Square played a critical role in shaping Greater Manchester and the lives of people living in the conurba- tion. Over the coming decades Greater Manchester’s transport system will face huge challenges, 8 Event Listings such as how to cater for a growth in travel as the city’s population increases to around three mil- lion people. Nicola Kane’s lecture will provide an introduction to TfGM’s ambitious plans. 10 Library Treasures Professor Daniel M Davis Alex Boswell Thursday 10th October 2019 - RNCM The Beautiful Cure 12 Member’s Article Daniel M Davis’ research, using super-resolution microscopy to I remember, I remember study immune cell biology, was listed in Discover magazine as one of Alan Shelston the top 100 breakthroughs of the year. He is the author of the high- ly acclaimed book, ‘The Beautiful Cure’. This talk will present a revelato- ry new understanding of the human body and what it takes to be healthy. 14 Dining at The Portico Library Joe Fenn Image: The University of Manchester Derek Blyth Tuesday 15th October 2019 - RNCM 15 Volunteer Story Ellie Holly No Regrets - The Life and Music of Edith Piaf In a century known for its record keeping and attention to detail, Edith Piaf’s life can read like a fairy tale. Derek Blyth’s lecture will examine the world into which she was born, lived and worked, a time of great turbulence and change encompassing two world wars, great so- cial upheaval and the development of mass communication. The event will be topped and tailed with live music, two songs made famous by Piaf and perfomed in tribute. Professor Trevor Cox Wednesday 13th November 2019 - MCC Now You’re Talking Your voice is integral to your personal identity. We judge others not just by their words, but also by the way they talk: their intonation, their pitch, their accent. Mixing scientific analysis with musical interludes, Trev- or Cox will explore the workings of the voice and how it adapts to differ- ent styles, drawing on his latest popular science book, ‘Now You’re Talking’. Cover Image Saints and their symbols, The Bibliographical Decameron, Thomas Frognall Dibdin, 1817. The Manchester ‘Lit & Phil’ was founded in 1781 by two medical doctors, Thomas Percival and Charles White, and All written material, unless otherwise stated, continues to this day as a focus for 30 fascinating lectures and discussions annually from distinguished experts on a Above is the copyright of The Portico Library. wide variety of topics. Events are held in convenient locations in and near the centre of Manchester and will appeal to Opaque and polarising objects, The Micrographic Dictionary, John Designed by Birthday people of all ages who have an enquiring mind! Please visit our website for further information on becoming a member. William Griffith and Arthur Henfrey, Printed by Jump North 1860. If you would like to place an advertisement www.manlitphil.ac.uk Available to buy at in our next edition, please contact 5th Floor, Church House, 90 Deansgate, Manchester M3 2GP www.theportico.org.uk/shop [email protected] 0161 833 4187 3 NOTE FROM THE LIBRARIAN LIBRARY NEWS You may have noticed that Manchester to read and borrow many of their titles, Announcing the winners have created opportunities for young is in the process of commemorating The including numerous first editions. To learn of The Portico Sadie people to discover and develop their Peterloo Massacre, which took place 200 more about becoming a member please Massey Awards 2019 literary passions and talents, from prose years ago this August. Positioned only visit our website or give the Library a call. and poetry to comedy and performance. 160 meters from what was then St. Finally it gives me great pleasure to For the last four years The Portico This year the judges Martin Griffin, Peter’s Field, The Portico Library is announce that The Portico Prize has been inviting students from across Jake Hope, Danielle Jawando and Paul one of the last buildings still standing has officially returned to the literary Manchester and beyond to write a Morris have taken joy in reading through in Manchester from the time. By delving landscape. Once described as ‘the persuasive book review or a creative every submission and have been, yet through our archive, which is searchable Booker of the North’, the Prize awards narrative set in the North of England. again, bowled over by the quality of the through our online catalogue, we are £10,000 to the book that best evokes the Each year, judges are on the lookout for entries. We are delighted to announce just beginning to uncover the Library’s spirit of the North of England. We have entries with energy, enthusiasm and an that the reviews and stories of the connections to Peterloo. Some of the a stellar line-up of judges: journalist original perspective. They have not been winning students can now be viewed at results of this research (see page 6) will and broadcaster Simon Savidge; actor disappointed! www.theportico.org.uk/sadie-massey- be displayed in our exhibition, Making Holliday Grainger; writer, broadcaster Students have demonstrated an awards and will be published in the the News, 5 July–23 September and performer Kate Fox; Zahid Hussain, irrepressible love for books and stories Portico-themed children’s book, Time (see page 7). author of The Curry Mile; and Jean and often the quality has been exceptional. Travellers and the Crystal Dome, from One of the great things about putting Sprackland, Professor of Creative Writing The number of entries, too, has been Seven Arches Publishing. together this publication is being able to at Manchester Metropolitan University. staggering. Since 2015 these competitions Congratulations and thanks to everyone call upon our membership to write short Our newly created Society of Readers have received over 1,000 entries and our who entered the competition and shared pieces about their work. This edition is and Writers will also collectively draw up educational work has engaged more their creativity! no exception with Alan Shelston, Honorary a longlist as part of the judging process. than 2,000 young people in the region. Senior Research Fellow in English I can’t wait to see the submissions Our workshops, delivered by some of Aoife Larkin Literature at the University of Manchester, arrive and to attend the accompanying Manchester’s most esteemed Events and Outreach Coordinator providing a fascinating take on Victorian events (see pages 8–9). ambassadors of children’s and YA writing, literature and old age (see page 12–13). Right Throughout the piece, Alan mentions Dr. Thom Keep Matty Thompson, several high profile 19th-century authors Librarian one of last year’s winners, reading and as a Portico member you are able his winning review at The Portico Right Sadie Massie Bookbinding Awards prize workshop giving event 2018. concertina style with Barry Clark, 30th April, 2019. 4 | The Portico Library | Jul—Sept, 2019 5 LIBRARY NEWS EXHIBITION Sharing The Portico response to Peterloo, including Thomas Library’s Hidden Heritage Potter, who later became the first Mayor Making the News Literate Manchester campaigners of Manchester. Another, less well known, became powerful leaders of both In the process of transcribing one of the indication of an anti-Establishment Reading between the lines, democratic and anti-democratic earliest List of Proprietors (1806–1850) reaction amongst some members is that from Peterloo to Meskel Square movements in 1819, and The Portico onto an electronic database, I have a number, including Benjamin Beddome, Library will display books and artefacts 5 July–23 September 2019 discovered more about the involvement Samuel Pullein, Reverend J. G. Robberds containing examples of their texts and of Portico Library members in the and John Mitchell MD, signed a petition Free public preview: speeches alongside the new artworks. Accompanying Robel’s works and the Peterloo Massacre and its aftermath. which declared that the signatories 4 July, 6–8pm Captain Hugh Hornby Birley, a were “fully satisfied” by “personal Library’s items will be extracts from the manufacturer and member of the observation or undoubted information” This year’s city-wide bicentenary newly published graphic novel Peterloo: Manchester branch of the anti- that the Peterloo meeting was “perfectly commemorations of the Peterloo Witnesses to a Massacre. revolutionary Pitt Club, was an original peaceable”, that “no seditious or Massacre include an exhibition at member. Second in command of the intemperate harangues were made The Portico, one of the only remaining Manchester and Salford Regiment of there”, and that the Riot Act “if read institutions to have witnessed the atrocity. Yeoman Cavalry, and involved in the at all, was read privately or without The Library’s members at the time charging of the crowd, his role was an the knowledge of the great body included Captain Hugh Hornby Birley, infamous one. Other pro-Establishment of the Meeting” and expressed their who led the fatal cavalry charge, and names include the Reverend C. W. “utter disapprobation” of the “unexpected J. E. Taylor, who founded The Guardian Ethelston, who read the Riot Act to and unnecessary violence by which the newspaper in response to press the crowd (although it was a matter of Assembly were dispersed”.