It’s lovely to see so many students (and the occasional member of staff) enjoying the bean bags on the grass in the Water Library in Princes’ Quad. They are proving popular with students revising – testing each other on exam topics, working on laptops and others just relaxing, taking a break and socialising. One of the benefits has been more space for students doing intensive revision in the Library. Students have developed creative revision habits this year – unprompted they have been using the glass walls of the pods to write revision notes – very effective re-usable white boards! Good luck to everyone with revision and exams.
This week saw the announcement of the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction 2016 winner. The prize, formerly known as the Orange Prize for Fiction, was founded in 1996 and celebrates
‘excellence, originality and accessibility in writing by women throughout the world’. It was won by Lisa McInerney with her debut novel Glorious Heresies. The chair of the judges described it as “a superbly original, compassionate novel that delivers insights into the very darkest of lives through humour and skilful storytelling. A fresh new voice and a wonderful winner.” The six shortlisted books are available in the Library – I have much reading to catch up on!