Louise Walters, author of Mrs Sinclair’s Suitcase, discovered mysteries in the mobile library:

My favourite library was the mobile one that used to visit both the villages I grew up in. I absolutely loved climbing up those steps… I’ll never forget the lovely smell and the sight of all those books crammed in the shelves. I remember borrowing my first Agatha Christie and feeling very grown up! It was a hardback omnibus edition that I think included Murder on the Orient Express. Mine was an impoverished childhood in many ways but the library brought nothing but richness to my life. I still get a thrill now whenever I enter a library (which is quite often!)

Jane Corry, author of the forthcoming My Husband’s Wife, also loved a library on the move:

My favourite library was at school in Edgware. I would hide there (sad, I know) during lunchhours. I loved the smell of the lavender-waxed tables and old books. In the sixth form, I became school librarian which was really exciting! The second contender to my favourite library was the mobile van which would trundle along to the Buckinghamshire village where I brought up my children. They would jump and down in it to make it shake. Very embarrassing….