As someone who’s old enough to remember Playschool, I was gutted to miss meeting Floella Benjamin when she dropped in to Lee Green yesterday in support of Pete’s campaign to become our next MP.

Floella met up with Pete, Pauline, Chris and other Lib Dem candidates and visit the Manor House Library and Manor House Gardens.

Manor House Library staff are to host a great opportunity to regularly meet other Spanish speakers and to celebrate Latin America.

Should Spanish be your second language, this is also a chance to socialise and hone your language skills. The group will watch a movie or have a chat about a short-story by a Latin American author. Copies of the short stories will be provided in advance.

These are free evenings and will be held fortnightly on Thursdays, between 5 and 7 pm. The first session will be on Thurday 15th April.

More info on 020 8852 0357

We’re in the middle of Fairtrade fortnight (22nd Feb- 7th March) and to celebrate there are a few Fairtrade events coming up at Manor House Library:

• borrow a book, CD or DVD and get a free fairtrade teabag (while stocks last!)
• on Monday coming (1st March), the Manor House is hosting a Fairtrade Tea Dance from 2pm until 4pm.  Fairtrade tea and cakes are provided.  Call 8852 0357 to book your place.
• there’ll be a showing of the Black Gold Movie ( a film about coffee and trade) on Saturday 6th March at 2.30pm
• ‘The Luckiest Nut in the World’ is an event for kids and families on Sunday 7th March at 1pm

All sounds good – disappointed I can’t make it for the Fairtrade cake, but probably best that the public is spared my dancing…!

I got back from NZ to find an email from Peter Richardson, Chair of the Friends and Users of Manor House Library.  He wanted to share with me this photo of the unveiling of their new noticeboard at the Manor House, funded by last year’s locality fund.

It’s taken a while, but thanks in no small part to Peter’s persistence, the board’s now been installed and hopefully more people will become aware of the Friends’ work.

The photo shows Claire from the library with Peter, Pat and Mary from the user group, and my colleague Cllr Paul Bentley.

There’s a series of events at the Manor House to mark Black History Month, including a themed month of Saturday Matinee film showings:

• Saturday 3rd October – the Secret Life of Bees
• Saturday 10th October – Malcolm X
• Saturday 17th October – Akeelah and the Bee

All the above film showings start at 3.30pm in the AV Room (meeting room 1).  They’re absolutely free – book a seat by calling the library on 8852 0357.

More details of other Black History Month events in Lewisham can be found on the Council website at www.lewisham.gov.uk/blackhistorymonth

Finally, on Saturday October 24th, the Library is hosting a historical lecture with eminent historian S.I.Martin who’ll be giving an illuminating protrait of the black history of Lee and Blackheath with a particular focus on the Manor House itself.  That event’s at 3pm until 4, in the Baring Room.  Again, please book a seat by calling the library on 8852 0357.

This week’s Manor House Library Film Club Saturday matinee is Casino Royale.   3.30pm in the AV Room (first floor)

It’s absolutely FREE to attend, but please do book your place by giving the Library a call on 8852 0357.