For the final episode of the series we sat down with Santiago Ospina-Tarboda, a Customer Service Assistant at Sutton Libraries to chat about what inspires him, the different ways he helps people at work and why he loves Rhymetime. Santiago brought his unique perspective of the library service, having previously worked as an operations assistant and also gave some insight into the sessions offered to sutton Library users with learning disabilities.

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Santiago is a Customer Service Assistant working across all Sutton Libraries.

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SUTTON LIBRARIES WEBSITE

SUTTON CULTURAL SERVICES EVENTS

This week we were lucky enough to be joined by local author and actor Saraswathi Sukumar, for a fascinating chat about her inspirations, the roots of her love for storytelling and the darker side of old children's tales. Recorded on the 2nd floor at Sutton Central Library, a place that Saraswathi was very familiar with as she described her journey from borrowing books as a child and a young adult from Sutton Central, before studying for her GCSEs in our study space. Listen to hear how Saraswathi's local experience works alongside her Indian roots to create unique stories.

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Saraswathi Sukumar is an actor and author. In 2022 she was commissioned by Documental to write a radio play based on the landscape of Devon, 'Slices of Soundless Scream' and recently developed a lesson plan to be delivered to Sutton school children encouraging them to write a short story.

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SARASWATHI'S SUTTON STEAMS AHEAD LESSON PACK

LISTEN TO 'SLICES OF SOUNDLESS SCREAM'

SUTTON LIBRARIES WEBSITE

SUTTON CULTURAL SERVICES EVENTS

Joining us on The Library Talks Podcast this week is local author Gordon Thomas. The author of 5 novels, beginning with the Madrid series, The Harpist of Madrid (2011), The Emerald of Burgos (2014), Expulsion (2017) and Return to Madrid (2019). He recently moved away from this series with It Began in Florence (2021), a novel about British composer Ethel Smyth. Gordon is a natural storyteller and this was a fascinating conversation covering how Gordon came to writing novels later in life, his inspiration and advice for new writers. We ended our conversation by considering the links between art and science as we continue to look ahead to Sutton STEAMs Ahead.

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Gordon L. Thomas spent a long and varied career working as a scientist and for the Home Office before turning to writing novels after retiring in the early 2000’s. He has published 5 novels and is currently working on a 6th, focussing on the life of Anton Bruckner.

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GORDON'S WEBSITE

GORDON L. THOMAS INSTAGRAM

SUTTON LIBRARIES WEBSITE

SUTTON CULTURAL SERVICES EVENTS