At the end of October, the British Library suffered a paralysing cyber attack which affected their website and many online services.
Sir Roly Keating, the British Library’s Chief Executive, stated that: ‘The people responsible for this cyber attack stand against everything that libraries represent: openness, empowerment, and access to knowledge.’ Nonetheless, their physical sites have stayed open, and I was recently delighted to visit their Fantasy: Realms of Imagination exhibition.
The exhibition covers a plethora of texts and artefacts from rare ancient manuscripts to computer games and Warhammer figures, and is housed in an immersive setting which walks you through fairy woodlands and giant archways. Beginning with fairy and folk tales, the exhibition takes in epics and quests, portals and worlds as well as the ‘weird and uncanny’ and, of course, the worlds of fandom. You can see the Beowulf manuscript alongside plenty of Tolkien memorabilia from both books and films, an early draft of C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe together with costumes, artwork and even giant screens where you can play immersive fantasy video games.
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