to think a school librarian should have heard of Wolf Hall and actually read books?

Loads of Booker winning books are not particularly well known, even to avid readers. It's not guarantee of fame "The Finkler Question" won the following year and I wouldn't expect anyone to have heard of that.

Personally, I don't think Wolf Hall is a must read -- I read a vast amount, like a lot of so called 'difficult' books, but couldn't get up the enthusiasm or interest to work through any of the others in the trilogy.

I doubt she's a qualified librarian because that would be quite an expensive role for the school to fund. Perhaps she's more of an admin eg keeping the books properly catalogued, shelved and repaired.

Wolf Hall is definitely a modern classic. I wouldn't necessarily expect a school librarian to have read it, but it's surprising if they've never heard of it, particularly given the prizes it and its successors won.

Actually we had someone similar to this as our school librarian. The only thing she read was the Daily Mail and she spent all her time gossiping about teachers and sixth formers. I did used to love her though and spent most of my lunchtimes in sixth form in the library catching up on the goss.

Not read but yeah I’d expect a librarian to have heard of all or at least the vast majority of books that have won the Booker, especially in recent years.

Wolf Hall won the Booker and was televised. It absolutely is classic modern literature and will be a classic in time. And I'm not even a librarian.

You are almost me. My uni job involves book purchase both staff and patron led.

Nothing wrong with Dog Man!

Different people like different things. Personally I often dislike anything that has pretensions to be literary fiction, as they generally don’t seem to have much of a plot. And I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed a Booker prize winner.

I detest snobbishness about reading material.

It is a very famous book (and tv series!), I agree.

The school librarian at my last school was an English teacher who took it on voluntarily because we didn't have the money to pay one.

She did it in addition to all her teaching.

I very much doubt she had a librarianship qualification.

> Wolf Hall isn't exactly classic literature
It won the fucking Booker Prize
How much more Classic Literature can it be?

That’s my point. You don’t have to have an interest in every Booker winner or to be interested in historical fiction to have heard of, if not read, Wolf Hall. It was a break-out novel, and of course touches on the UK’s favourite historical period.

I've worked in a public library, a university library, and a bookshop, and was one of those keen kids who was a school library helper in my day, and other than the university library, the role in all of those was in part to be able to recommend books I knew were considered good in their genre, whether or not I had read them myself.

I doubt many people, even librarians, have heard of every Booker prize winner. Being a librarian doesn’t mean you enjoy every type of fiction out there, if historical novels aren’t your bag it’s not likely to have stood out.

Are you sure your friend isn’t being hyperbolic? Never reads books and can’t recommend any, yet is interested enough in books to have chosen to make a career out of books, despite librarianship being difficult to get into and poorly paid?

Is the school librarian a qualified one?! Very often they aren't. I love reading, and have done so since a child, but I don't know every author or have read every book! Yes, you'd expect a qualified librarian to have more knowledge, than the average person. Unless the school is a large one, then it's unlikely the school pay for a qualified librarian.

I agree with a PP that you have to have been living under a rock not to have at least heard of Wolf Hall.

I'm a senior library assistant and while I've heard of Wolf Hall (and didn't like it) there's literally hundreds of books I've never heard of that I come across during my working week!

And I didn't say it wasn't. I daresay the role varies from school to school. I've certainly had colleagues that moved to school library work and displays of recommended books, book fair visits and initiatives have been part of their work. Book recommendation list compilation also, but definitely in consultation with the subject teachers. I think there would be an expectation that a school librarian be able to have titles they suggest but I'm not sure I'd guarantee they had read them.

I work in a major uni library. The Booker Prize nominees are always displayed in mini exhibition. Other major fiction and non fiction prize books also.

You’d have to have been living under a rock not to have encountered Wolf Hall and its sequels, though. Quite apart from it being a huge bestseller, getting two Booker wins, there are the high-profile RSC stage and screen adaptations (the latter in the Sunday night prime time slot on BBC), and a lot of publicity generated by Mantel’s brilliant (and widely misunderstood) essay ‘Royal Bodies’ getting picked up and screamed about by the tabloids etc etc. It’s the kind of book you don’t have to be bookish to have heard of.

I'd be quite surprised that a school librarian had never heard of Wolf Hall given how popular it's been with people who are interested in history, especially after being on TV. No need for them to have read it but it's a relatively recent Booker prize winner (as was its sequel) and it complements a lot of A level history syllabuses. It's not just a random recent novel so being aware of its existence feels a bit off.

Hilary Mantel was also an excellent writer and someone I'd have thought you would recommend to students. She was very famous by the time she died - her death was national news.

I’ve been a school librarian and I’ve read wolf hall. However, Im no longer a school librarian because I was being paid as a council grade two, which was the same as a lollipop person or a street cleaner (no disrespect to either, very important jobs) and this was not unusual. I wouldn’t be surprised if the librarian you’re talking about is in the same boat and therefore it seems unreasonable to expect a professional level of interest in the job.

Yes, it won a booker. But so have lots of books. Do you expect the school librarian to have read and heard of every single one?

I bet loads of people have heard of Wolf Hall because of the TV adaptation.