Plymouth Proprietary Library

Wednesday 23rd September 2026 at 2pm.

£5 for members. £8 for non-members.

This talk by Karl Parsons (Chair of the Royal Cinema Community Benefit Society) will look at the history of The Royal Cinema, touching on cinema as a twentieth-century building type, the history of the ABC chain and the cultural landscape of Plymouth in the mid twentieth century. It will give a flavour of the faded and time-worn glamour of this picture palace and introduce the campaign to Save the Royal- a community led drive to provide a sustainable long-term future for this much-loved building. 

To guarantee a seat, contact the library at least 24 hours before the event. Otherwise, simply turn up on the day.

This September, the RWY in Royal William Yard stands for something new: Read Write Yap – a brand-new literary festival celebrating books, stories and the words that shape us, spread across a whole month of events and activities at the Yard. The festival is built around three simple ideas: reading, writing and talking, in whatever form that takes.

A series of small happenings and drop-in activities will bring the Yard to life with author talks, storytelling sessions, spoken word, craft workshops and a handful of lighter, more unexpected touches.

The festival is also rooted in place and community. Local authors, independent booksellers, spoken word artists and Plymouth-based creatives sit at its heart, and the month closes with a book fair on the last weekend of September. The PPL will have a stall on The Green (at the Royal William Yard) for this final event on Sunday 27th September: 10am - 3pm. See you there!

Wednesday 14th October 2026 at 2pm.

£5 for members. £8 for non-members.

From the moment we meet him as a Belgian refugee in the village of Styles during World War I, Agatha Christie's unlikely detective captured her readers' imaginations and has since morphed into a global phenomenon, his name recognised worldwide.

Throughout the 33 novels and 51 short stories featuring this small, balding man of indeterminate age, Christie slowly reveals a remarkable and singular character that still captivates us today. But who was he really? Where did he come from? What did he look like and what kind of person was he? And how was he so good at solving murders?

Elaine Henderson takes a close look at M. Poirot and attempts to find some answers.

To guarantee a seat, contact the library at least 24 hours before the event. Otherwise, simply turn up on the day.

Friday 16th October 2026 at 2pm.

Jimmy Haskell, the owner of a struggling music shop, is forced to close the business and take a job with his wealthy uncle, C.J., who runs a successful health-food company. C.J. has a deep hatred of music and is constantly at odds with the McCorkle family, whose boarding house is home to a lively band led by Horace Heidt. Jimmy soon becomes friendly with the McCorkles and falls in love with Molly, a talented singer in the family. The trouble is that Molly does not know Jimmy is C.J.'s nephew, while C.J. is unaware that Jimmy is helping his musical neighbours. When Jimmy gets an opportunity to put the band on his uncle's radio programme, their performance becomes a success. However, Molly discovers Jimmy's true identity, threatening both their romance and the fragile peace between the two families. Jimmy must find a way to keep the radio programme going, reconcile his uncle with the musicians and win Molly's forgiveness.

Wednesday 11th November 2026 at 2pm.

FREE for members. £5 for non-members.

From a dream and a walk across Devon to an unexpected role in a Dartmoor village play, Laurence Shelley's journey to writing Visions of Wilderness is as remarkable as the novel itself. He shares how real-life experience of brain injury, homelessness, and recovery shaped his fiction, offering a moving exploration of resilience, creativity, and the power of storytelling. 

To guarantee a seat, contact the library at least 24 hours before the event. Otherwise, simply turn up on the day.

Wednesday 25th November 2026 at 2pm.

£5 for members. £8 for non-members.

Nancy Astor (1879-1964) was an American-born politician who became the first woman to sit as a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons, representing Plymouth Sutton from 1919 to 1945. This talk by Chrissie Le Marchant (South West England Blue Badge Tourist Guide) will explore her life with particular emphasis on her time in Plymouth. 

To guarantee a seat, contact the library at least 24 hours before the event. Otherwise, simply turn up on the day.

Saturday 5th December 2026.

The PPL will be hosting a traditional Christmas lunch for members. 

The day will include a reading of the last chapter of Dickens' A Christmas Carol. 

More details to come.

Wednesday 13th January 2027 at 2pm.

FREE for members. £5 for non-members.

A presentation by author Julian Mitchell. He moved to Devon in 2005 and began writing in 2017. He has had four books published and is currently writing his fifth.

Join Julian for a personal literary journey. He will share the trials and tribulations of writing and getting his novels printed and published.

To guarantee a seat, contact the library at least 24 hours before the event. Otherwise, simply turn up on the day.

Wednesday 27th January 2027 at 2pm.

£5 for members. £8 for non-members.

This talk by Robert King will take a short look at how the ecology of the island developed, then takes a tour around the island where the various flora and fauna are found using a mixture of photos and short videos before finishing with a brief consideration of the future for the wildlife of the island.

To guarantee a seat, contact the library at least 24 hours before the event. Otherwise, simply turn up on the day.

Wednesday 24th February 2027 at 2pm.

£5 for members. £8 for non-members.

At the end of WWII, Government financial assistance helped Plymouth to attract new industry to the area in the form of Tecalemit, Bush and Berkertex but when that assistance was withdrawn in 1948, Plymouth was still heavily reliant on the dockyard for employment. However, the appointment of Stuart Lloyd Jones as Town Clerk of Plymouth in September 1953 saw a concerted campaign to secure new industry and jobs and over the following decade major new players including Clarks Shoes, Brown & Sharpe and Ranco Controls set up factories and provided much needed work for the people of Plymouth. 

This illustrated talk by Alan Bricknell covers some of the stories behind Clarks, Brown & Sharpe, Ranco Controls and Tecalemit in Post War Plymouth. 

To guarantee a seat, contact the library at least 24 hours before the event. Otherwise, simply turn up on the day.

Monday 8th March 2027 at 2pm.

£5 for members. £8 for non-members.

To celebrate International Women’s Day 2027 please join us to hear about two remarkable women, both born in the Westcountry, but whose lives were radically different. Emily Hobhouse, the vicar’s daughter, who became an international humanitarian activist, both loved and hated for her lifesaving work in South Africa. Amy Key Clarke, brilliant academic and scholar, and quiet, but forceful, advocate for women’s rights in higher education. A talk by Elaine Henderson.

PLEASE NOTE: This presentation contains details and images of war, and its repercussions, which some may find distressing. 

To guarantee a seat, contact the library at least 24 hours before the event. Otherwise, simply turn up on the day.

Wednesday 24th March 2027 at 2pm.

£5 for members. £8 for non-members.

William Honnywill kept a book of 'accompts and remembrances' in which he details shopping trips to London, meeting with friends for a game of bowls, and interspersed with details of his income and expenses from moneylending to the price of livestock and crops. Little details give an illustration of life in this quiet rural area of Devon, some six miles from Exeter.

The accompts (accounts) only survive in a series of newspaper articles published in late 1832 to early 1833; this is also about the search for the missing transcript of his book of accompts. A talk by Dr Lynda Pidgeon.

To guarantee a seat, contact the library at least 24 hours before the event. Otherwise, simply turn up on the day.

Wednesday 28th April 2027 at 2pm.

£5 for members. £8 for non-members.

A talk by David Brandreth.

More details to come.

To guarantee a seat, contact the library at least 24 hours before the event. Otherwise, simply turn up on the day.

Wednesday 23rd June 2027 at 2pm.

£5 for members. £8 for non-members.

There are many curious and intriguing things to see on Dartmoor.  If you stroll from The Two Bridges Hotel along the public footpath which follows the Cowsic River you will go through the delightful woods and reach Beardown Farm Bridge. The public footpath goes over the bridge up past the farm out to the Devonport Leat and onto the moors, but as you reach the bridge in the trees if you look around at the boulders there you might see carvings and dedications to Spencer, Burns, Shakespeare and Milton etc. These are just a few of the carvings within the publicly accessible area. But away from footpaths and access land there is a multitude lying within the private grounds of Beardown Farm, in the woods and fields. 

Simon Dell's talk describes the story of how these stones came to be in the Cowsic valley and the intriguing life of Edward Atkyns Bray - the Vicar of Tavistock.

To guarantee a seat, contact the library at least 24 hours before the event. Otherwise, simply turn up on the day.

Wednesday 22nd September 2027 at 2pm.

£5 for members. £8 for non-members.

From the 1790s into the first decades of the 1800s, contemporary travellers were discovering a patriotic enthusiasm for their homeland. With time, leisure and money they set out from their estates, parsonages and town houses to throng the turnpike roads and mail coach routes on their various ways to showpiece houses, watering places, sites of industry and beauty spots. En route and on arrival, they settled themselves into inns or lodgings and planned outings to accessible places within a day's ride or carriage drive ...

Discover more in this illustrated talk by Hazel Jones.

To guarantee a seat, contact the library at least 24 hours before the event. Otherwise, simply turn up on the day.

Wednesday 13th October 2027 at 2pm.

£5 for members. £8 for non-members.

A talk by Elaine Henderson.

More details to come.

To guarantee a seat, contact the library at least 24 hours before the event. Otherwise, simply turn up on the day.