Kerry Greenwood - Author & Lawyer - (Arts / Law student, late 70's early 80's)
Ah, libraries. Any kind of library really. The Baillieu was the biggest I had ever seen, but I didn't like to study there because unless one could grab one of the carrels, it was too noisy, being full of people discussing (in the seventies) Marx, revolution, the disgusting coffee sold in the Caf, social equity, gay rights, and boys.. or girls, of course.
So until the wonderful day that I discovered the research collection, I used to just fight my way through the crowds and borrow the books and study either under my favourite tree on the lawns or in the Law Library, where silence was so strictly observed that I once heard my friend Harvey, who was wearing corduroy trousers, go thwip-thwip-thwip down the aisle.
Then there was this door you see, which had No Entry on it, so naturally I tried it and it wasn't locked, so I went in. And there were dark shelves and treasures and riches, more attractive than any pirate hoards. Folios. Huge folios on botany and books of antique maps and gorgeous art books. I spent hours lurking, reading avidly, alert for the sounds of some Library Angel coming to banish me as unworthy. But no one ever challenged me.
And then I found the Black Letter Ballads. I was a folk singer then (more money and fun than washing floors, plus free cider) and I laid the books open on the desk and sang my way through them. They were crude badly printed single sheets, such as were sold at fairs for a penny. Most of them were set to a tune I knew - Like The Ratcatcher's Daughter. Most of them were gruesome.
I did think I heard a gasp as I got through one. It went His throat they cut from ear to ear His head they battered in His name was Mr William Weare What lived at Lyon's Inn. And then there was a scatter of footsteps as someone ran away.
So when you are told that the research collection is haunted, and a small soprano was heard singing eerily about murder in the murk, be calm and do not call the exorcists. It was me.
Kerry's website: http://www.phrynefisher.com/aboutkerry.html