Camden’s women librarians have removed their dust-jackets to renew interest in the printed word by producing a ‘nude’ calendar for
The Mayor’s Charity. Richard Osley reports

HERE are the pictures you never thought you would see – Camden’s librarians stripped off and posing as calendar girls.
Perched on a pile of encyclopaedias Miss June precariously protects her modesty with a road atlas. Meanwhile, Miss April covers up with a solid stack of the latest library loans while Miss September peeps out from behind a rack of videos cassettes.
Camden’s brave volunteers, some of whom admit to needing a stiff drink before going nude, were inspired by the best-selling charity calendar produced by middle-aged models from a Yorkshire branch of the Women’s Institute in the late 1990s.
Their story was adapted into the successful British film Calendar Girls starring Helen Mirren and Julie Walters released earlier this year.
Now Camden’s librarians are determined to use their own version of the calendar to challenge the tired stereotype that librarians are all dull who are happy to while away their days cataloguing endless shelves of books nobody has read in decades.
And the ten women, aged between 37 and 60, hope the project will also be fund-raising with proceeds going to the Mayor’s Charity, which every year helps thousands of Camden residents. The project was masterminded by Miss October, otherwise known as Diane Bowman, 42, a senior librarian at the West Hampstead branch.
“I think some us thought that it was now or never, there is something about women of a certain age,” she explains. “There were some people that were particularly eager to get involved. They didn’t need much persuading. But others needed their arms twisted just a little a bit.”
The secret photo shoot took place over three Sunday afternoons at the Antrim Road library.
Diane says: “We papered over the glass in the windows so people couldn’t see in, so our regulars knew something was going on. I think we are all pleased with the pictures. I think they are quite tastefully done. We might not like the pictures of ourselves but we are glad that this was something that we did together. One of the reasons is the bottle of wine in one of the pictures was there is that we all needed a little something before we actually did it.”
But what will the readers make of the daring pictures? “Some people have said that it is a little tacky,” Diane says. “They say it is a little demeaning to the profession. But we think it is tasteful. We think it shows that librarians have lives outside of libraries and shows that we are not all dull and boring people. It is something that you might not expect librarians to do. And in the end I think some people felt that it was something that they would have like to have been a part of after they saw the pictures.”
There are no regrets from any of the other models either.
Sonia Evelyn (Miss June) adds: “Diane’s my best mate so when she asked me I said of course. It’s decent exposure, not indecent, and it’s for a good cause. We had good time making it. There were reels and reels of film that we didn’t use. Say no more about those.”
Sonia, who is in her 30s, works at Camden Town Library but won’t be back behind the counter until May because she is studying for a degree in sports therapy.
“It was good timing really,” she says. “The other staff have been quite encouraging but I think some of them were shy and said ‘no way’ when they were asked. The traditional stereotype has been completely smashed. I found it offensive. This shows all sorts of people work in libraries.”
It needed someone trustworthy and a wry sense of humour behind the camera. Step forward amateur snapper John Clarke, a former library worker now employed in the council’s environment department teaching cycling proficiency.
“I got involved somewhat reluctantly but it was a lot of fun in the end,” he says.
“Some of them were very, very nervous but they became more relaxed. You have to take 30 or 40 pictures of each but the first few pictures are just to get them relaxed before you get the one. There were a few pictures that were not used that showed a bit more leg but they couldn’t be used because they were landscape and not portrait.”
Camden Mayor Councillor Nasim Ali’s didn’t seem to mind at a launch party on Thursday. “I think what these women have done is brave and highly commendable and all for such a good cause,” he said. “I’ve bought a calendar and I urge everyone else to do so.”

n The calendar is on sale in all Camden’s libraries, priced £4, and at: Dizar, West End Lane, NW6; West End Books, West End Lane, NW6. Anyone interested in buying the calendar can call Diane Bowman at West Hampstead Library on 020 7974 6610.