John Mandeville's Travels (a copy of which is the Library's oldest book) describes necromancers and diviners playing a prominent role at the court of the Mongol Great Qa'an, placing esoteric skill at the heart of empire. Starting from accounts of the mage and scholar Sakkākī’s service at the court of Chinggis Qan’s son Chaghadai, this talk will […]

The second film in our The True Story Season Please note that due to licensing restrictions, you must be a member of the Leeds Library to attend this screening, and we are not able to advertise details of the film publicly beforehand. Join fellow Members of the Library for an afternoon in front of the […]

Have you ever walked past The Leeds Library on Commercial Street and wanted to find out more about our beautiful building and its collection? ...Then book a free tour! The Leeds Library is the oldest surviving members’ subscription library in the UK. Founded in 1768, the Library moved to its current purpose-built premises on Commercial […]

The first film in our The True Story Season Please note that due to licensing restrictions, you must be a member of the Leeds Library to attend this screening, and we are not able to advertise details of the film publicly beforehand. Join fellow Members of the Library for an afternoon in front of the […]

Have you ever walked past The Leeds Library on Commercial Street and wanted to find out more about our beautiful building and its collection? ...Then book a free tour! The Leeds Library is the oldest surviving members’ subscription library in the UK. Founded in 1768, the Library moved to its current purpose-built premises on Commercial […]

This talk is a summary and reflection of the experimental work I did for my MA at the University of York in 2023-24. For this project, I designed a series of dyeing experiments to compare the performance of two plant dyes: Lady's Bedstraw (G. verum) and Dyer's Madder (R. tinctorum). In this talk, I will […]

The third film in our Crazy Little Thing Called Love Season Please note that due to licensing restrictions, you must be a member of the Leeds Library to attend this screening, and we are not able to advertise details of the film publicly beforehand. Join fellow Members of the Library for an afternoon in front […]

Three tales of the restless dead, by the master of the English ghost story. In Rats a reading holiday in a quiet coastal inn is thrown into confusion by a horribly thin Something in the neighbouring room. In An Evening’s Entertainment a blackberry thicket on a country lane conceals the site of a blasphemous and […]