Myra Schehtman

• THERE is a Chinese proverb discreetly displayed on a Swiss Cottage library window which reads: “Learning is weightless, a treasure you can always carry easily.”

Myra Schehtman (also known as Myra Newman) was my librarian throughout my life.

I remember being taken, crocodile fashion, from Primrose Hill School to Chalk Farm library on our first visit where we were all signed up for library cards which Myra kept in a long, wooden records box.

I took my first baby to her famed “Rhyme Time” sessions and commuted in with my second when I no longer lived in the area.

Myra shaped my intellectual life more than my A-level teachers or university tutors.

When I received the reading list to study English I realised what a rich grounding Myra had given me.

Not just the narrow list of the classics in front of me but contemporary fiction, women’s poetry, queer literature and translations, American, Northern Irish, Asian and Caribbean authors.

Not forgetting the remarkable Our Bodies, Ourselves – a true gift to a teenage girl – as well as books on pregnancy and child rearing.

Myra hated the limelight and received no formal recognition but she was a public servant of the highest order. Every child needs a Myra in their community as well as a library to feed them.

Thank you Myra for the treasure you gave me, it is both weightless and immeasurable.

PHILIPPA JACKSON
formerly of Chalcot Crescent, NW1