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Journalism of Courage
When Lesley Harrison borrowed a German language book in 1966 to prepare for her school exam, she was just 14 years old. Instead of returning the book after 21 days, she kept the book with herself. After 20,656 days (or 56 years), however, she found time to return the book to the Killingworth Library in England’s North Tyneside.
The 70-year-old was prompted to make the return after the library announced in November 2022 that it would forgive all the late fees on borrowed books. The library’s gesture was aimed at encouraging people to visit the library more. It also announced a contest for the most overdue book; the winner was to get vouchers for the North Tyneside Council’s sports and leisure centres.
Harrison won the contest by a landslide. The council on Tuesday shared online a picture of Harrison returning the book and wrote, “Staff at Killingworth Library were amazed when Lesley Harrison, of Shiremoor, brought in the German language textbook that she borrowed in April 1966, aged 14.”
Commenting on it, a Facebook user joked, “She’s just a slow reader nothing wrong with that !!!”
The library mentioned that the overdue fee for the book would amount to 2,000 pounds (approximately Rs 2,00,000). However, the library’s new policy caps the fine at five pounds (approximately Rs 500).
The world record for the most overdue library book is held by “Scriptores Rerum Germanicarum Septentrionalium, Vicinorumque Populorum Diversi’ (Various historians of the northern Germans and neighbouring peoples), which was returned to Sidney Sussex College in 1956, almost 288 years after it was first borrowed. The book was found by UK historian John Plumb in a family’s private library.
