Bromley House Library, Nottingham

What a treat yesterday to go round this little gem of a library in the centre of Nottingham – between Barnardo’s charity shop and a newsagents.

Stepping into the house which contains the library is like stepping into a Jane Austen movie.  It feels, looks and smells like a private library.  The kind gentlemen created for their own pleasure.  No ladies alas among its founding subscribers.

On show just a few of the treasures of the place.  A book created like a special edition of Hello magazine to celebrate a royal wedding.  In this case the Prince of Wales and the Danish Princess Alexandra in 1863.  And just like a Hello sequence there was information about the guests, the celebrities of the day, the clothes, the presents and the going away outfits of bride and groom.

All this not in glossy photographs, but beautifully coloured pictures, painted with painstaking detail of setting and people.

I spent a happy hour in the library ending my tour with a look at the garden which has to be the quietest outdoor space in the city centre regardless of the traffic no more than 50 yards away.