Brent closes 6 libraries

I'm so sad..the library where I spent many a Saturday afternoon reading away the hours, has been shut as part of a cost saving exercise by Brent council. Tokyngton library is a small little library on the edge of what used to be my local park..I was a regular visitor, the library being the one place where my mother thought I wouldn't get into trouble..she was actually right. I was far too busy being introduced to Enid Blyton's The Famous Five, The Secret Seven, or Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys..I'd finish a book in an hour or so and eagerly pick up another to devour. I'd then take the maximum six books allowed per library card, home with me; a world of possibilities waiting for me to explore in the hundred or so pages within each book.

I have many happy memories of summer holidays spent at Tokyngton library, it felt like a safe haven and a base for me to sit unbothered while reading myself into another world.

I now take my 7 month old son to our local library. He actually first went when he was around 10 weeks old. I want him to be as in love with books as I am and I'm hoping being part of the government's Bookstart scheme will help encourage him to read more than a few comic books by the time he's a teenager.

It amazes me when people say that many children in London have never owned a book of their own or even been read to...with the closures of the libraries in Brent I fear this will be a sad reality for even more children.