Above photo: Susan Harvey and Paul F Walsh outside the library in Lambton Park where they both fell in love with books.
In my childhood memories, the rather tiny Lambton Library is huge. I would ride my ancient pushbike down through Lambton Park as though I were a famous fighter pilot, rest the rusting bike against the old weatherboards of the library and then rush into its hallowed domain in search of the latest Biggles book. I could never get enough of Biggles and his adventurous pals, Algy, Bertie and Ginger. They took me all over the adult world and happily out of my childhood world.
I often wonder whether Susan was some unknown blonde child hovering around the non-existent mathematics section as I rushed past her in pursuit of escapist freedom. She actually lived closer to the library than I did, not that I knew of her consciously at the time. Many years later, we were travelling to Muswellbrook on a train, only to find that we had the entire carriage to ourselves. I was in a holiday mood, so I sat across the aisle from Susan to study the passing landscape. I remarked on a herd of cows, but Susan ignored me as she was concentrating on the mechanics section of an Extension 2 Mathematics text that she had just removed from her handbag.
Books! We both simply love them. And for many years we have published books nationally together. And now we have even written and published The HS Sea, Students’ Own Adventure Journal together. I wonder whether that title owes a little to my Boys’ Own adventures with Biggles all those years ago. Susan confesses that her association with Lambton Library was not as extensive as my own, but she does recall her sixth class teacher at Lambton Public School encouraging her to find Robbery Under Arms by Rolf Boldrewood, no doubt in a high-brow section of Lambton Library far removed from my younger self salivating over Biggles Delivers the Goods.
But I was similarly inspired by my teacher at St Pius X College to fly a little higher in the literary firmament than a Sopwith Camel. He wanted me to complete a project on the ancient world. The books on that subject in Lambton Library would have been less numerous than Biggles, but suitably ancient, and much closer in the physical realm to where Susan would have been searching for Rolf Boldrewood. Were those two teachers from Lambton Public School and St Pius X College unwitting literary matchmakers? If so, they were bloody hopeless at it, but Susan and I do have a lot to be thankful for with regard to the many teachers who inspired our love of books. So now it is our turn to repay the favour with FREE BOOKS FOR TEACHERS!
We are giving away up to a thousand copies of The HS Sea, Students’ Own Adventure Journal to inspire peer review and classroom innovation. If you know any teachers or trainee teachers, please draw their attention to this remarkable offer and advise them to see the details at www.tuskproductions.com.au on the HS Sea page therein. This is our way of saying thank you to those teachers who sent us to Lambton Library, and to all of the other teachers who encouraged our passion for books, but it is also more than that.
We are giving away the leaves of our teaching souls. Whatever wisdom and skills that we have gained in our collective seventy-plus years of teaching are showcased in a humorous, inspirational way within this gift. Unlike most classroom teachers, we have had teaching access to students from every system in the Hunter Region: State, Catholic and private, and from myriad schools. We thus offer a unique bird’s-eye view that will hopefully assist teachers with their professional journey and their commitment to classroom innovation. Perhaps some of them will disagree with our educational theories so much that they will create and publish what they regard as better theories of their own. That would be a great outcome. We seek to be creative catalysts rather than pedagogical know-alls! And we seek to encourage more teachers to learn from each other, just as Susan and I have learnt from each other over these many years.
Lambton Library has a lot to answer for with respect to not introducing me to Susan much earlier. But Biggles never married, so perhaps such a younger meeting would have been premature. Perhaps the library was trying to shelter us as we circled the shelves and each other, literary soul mates, each consciously ignorant of the other’s presence. Last I looked in Lambton Library, our national bestseller Novocastrian Tales was located not far from where I used to find Biggles. If only I had known that My Future Wife could have been found there as well! Now that would have been a book worth reading sooner rather than later! Or, would it?
Books! Never underestimate them, or judge them by their covers. You never know where they might take you!
HAPPY READING, EVERYBODY!