The WEA Bookroom Part 1

This is the first in a series of blogs on the much loved WEA Bookroom. The WEA Bookroom opened in 1922 and was sold to the Adelaide University in 1982. Below is a chapter from the book 'A Touch of Class - How the WEA changed my life' by Ivone Kirkpatrick. Ivone currently tutors courses in leadership and communication at the WEA and runs a successful coaching business. His first contact with the WEA, however, came many years ago when he worked at the WEA Bookroom with Ethel Payne, who he describes as the first feminist he ever met.

The WEA Bookroom

 

A Recollection of the WEA Bookroom – Ivone Kirkpatrick

It was my first job. The WEA Bookroom, and Ethel Payne was the manager.

It was the bookshop for the University, and for the WEA - for people thirsty (perhaps hungry) to learn.

My first work was out the back room. I was to bring the books in off the trucks, un-wrap the parcels but, “Do not touch the books”. In the back room with me was a woman with a strong Austrian accent, and different age bracket. She was as shy as I then was.  Sadly we hardly communicated.

After several weeks I was unable to contain my frustration at being restricted to carrying and unwrapping parcels. “I love books,” I told Ethel. “Please can I actually touch the books and tick them off against the invoices?”

Ethel’s response was clear and decisive.

“If that’s what you want, do it.”

A couple of weeks later I was getting anxious about being stuck in the back room. The books, and people browsing the books, were out in the bookshop. I told Ethel: “I love books and I love people. Can I be in the bookshop sometimes?”

“Don’t ask - do it,” she said.

She gave me the list of Penguin Books, with responsibility to maintain the section daily. I said I wanted to add richness to the bookshop and keep in stock, if possible, one of every Penguin from two particular sections of the list, not simply stock multiple copies of texts. She said: “Don’t ask, do it”.

So I did it.

Sometime later I pointed out that I’d like to include all the paperbacks in my responsibilities, so she gave me that section too. As a result, we started importing books, nefariously, direct from the USA. These were books by radical American authors and previously unavailable to us through the proper British sources.

I ordered them from the catalogues and Ethel just let me do it and didn’t check what I was doing. She said: “Do it”.

Ethel was about action and she trusted me, an inexperienced young man at that time, to do it.

I started bringing in these radical American writers. Beat poets and writers like Ginsberg and Ferlinghetti and political radicals. From then on she led me up the ladder to the position of assistant manager.

I thought of Ethel as the first feminist I’d ever met. For a while I was the only man in the bookshop. It was an interesting situation.

She was adored by the male academics. That was my perception. She had this coterie of articulate, intelligent young academics around her, who clearly loved and respected her. Ethel was a feminist, a true feminist in that she was biased neither towards women nor men. She was a really special person.

She was a strong, grounded decision maker, brilliant at giving responsibility and making people feel good about that. So, to a large degree the staff ran the WEA Bookroom.

When the University of Adelaide bought the WEA Bookroom and moved it to the lower level of the campus, Ethel did all the discussions with architects Dickson and Platten. As she was going on leave, she left me to continue discussions about practical aspects of the internal fitting out of the shop. It was another delegation of trust.

I’m proud to have been involved in what ended up a beautiful interior, due to the architects’ inspiration.

At the same time, there had been something about the old WEA Bookroom. It was tiny, and quaint in its own peculiar style. It had a wonderful dynamism. Laughter, commitment and love of people, learning and books abounded.

It wasn’t how I had been brought up to believe work to be. It was focused and fun.

Now here I am back with the WEA, years later, this time presenting programs like “The Influential Communicator”, leadership and negotiation. The feeling is reminiscent of the bubbling Bookroom. It’s still about people thirsty to learn. Excitingly, it’s fresh bunches of people.

 

This story is reproduced with permission and is a revised edition of the story by Ivone Kirkpatrick originally published in A Touch of Class – how the WEA changed my life (2003), Edited by David Schuppan and Caroline Cleland.