Check Out a Night Nurse: Trelispen’s Human Library Is Open for Borrowing
Photo: Libraries Taskforce, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Trelispen Human Library returns to Trelispen Library on Market Street on Saturday 21 November 2026, and the shelves look a little different from usual. Instead of paperbacks, you can borrow a night-shift nurse, an allotment judge or a retired signalman for twenty minutes of conversation. It is free, it is friendly, and it is a lot less intimidating than it sounds.
So how does it actually work?
A Human Library is exactly what it says on the tin, minus the tin. Local volunteers act as ‘books’, each with a title such as ‘Night-Shift Nurse’ or ‘Retired Signalman’. Visitors browse a catalogue, choose a title and sit down for a short, one-to-one chat in a quiet corner of the library. When the time is up, the book is returned and the next borrower takes their place.
It is not speed dating. It is not therapy. It is not a debate club. The idea is simply to give people permission to ask questions they would not normally ask a stranger, and to hear an answer without the usual small talk getting in the way.
Meet three of the titles
Night-Shift Nurse. A hospital nurse who has worked nights for more than a decade. Ask about sleep, shifts, what the public gets wrong about A&E, or how a household runs when one person is permanently out of sync with the rest of the world. She is not there to discuss individual patients or confidential cases — and she will say so if a question goes too far.
Allotment Judge. A long-standing plot holder who has judged village shows and county competitions. Ask about soil, slugs, wonky carrots or what makes a prize marrow. He is happy to talk about the politics of the vegetable tent, too, which is apparently more intense than you might imagine.
Retired Signalman. Forty years on the railways, most of them in signal boxes. Ask about the old working practices, the changes he has seen, or what it feels like when a system you trusted is replaced by a screen. He is good on the small details: the levers, the bells, the tea.
How to book a title
The catalogue will be available at Trelispen Library and on the library’s booking page from Monday 10 November 2026. Slots run from 10am to 3pm, with a break for lunch. You can reserve a title in advance or take your chances on the day. Loans last around twenty minutes, and you can usually renew if nobody is waiting.
Bring a library card if you have one, but you do not need one to take part. Under-16s are welcome with an adult. The sessions are free, and tea and biscuits are included — which, frankly, is a better deal than most things on a Saturday.
What to ask — and what not to
The best questions are open and curious. ‘What does a normal Tuesday look like for you?’ is a good start. ‘What do people always get wrong about your job?’ is another. ‘What has changed most since you started?’ works well, too.
It is fine to ask about the difficult bits, but the books are volunteers, not exhibits. They can decline a question, change the subject or end a loan early. Avoid asking for confidential information, medical advice or anything that turns a friendly chat into an interrogation. The point is not to catch someone out. It is to listen.
Why borrowed conversations beat small talk
Most of us spend a lot of time making polite noise about the weather, the buses or the state of the high street. A Human Library cuts through that. It gives you a reason to ask a stranger something real, and it gives the stranger a reason to answer.
‘People often say they would never normally talk to someone like me,’ one of the volunteer books told me. ‘But once they sit down, they realise we have more in common than they thought. That’s the whole thing, really.’
So if you are free on 21 November, go and borrow someone. Pick a title that makes you curious. Ask a good question. Return your book on time. And if you find yourself still thinking about the conversation a week later, that is probably the point.
