David Taylor was upset that his role in setting up the Library of Avalon was said to have 'come to nothing'; the truth is I didn't know how much effort he had put in, nor how formative he had been. (Perhaps this will turn out to be the case for other things as well - we shall see). So I have provisionally re-written the part from chapter 25 (page 182-183) about setting up the library:

Upstairs, in the back room of 8a Market Place (also owned by the GE), the Library of Avalon was created. There had been interest for some time in setting up a spritually-based library in Glastonbury, and in 1987 David Taylor began to lay the groundwork, with the support of Geoffrey Ashe who was the library’s first patron. They established it as a library of mythology, though this was defined in very broad terms “as the source of creativity,” with “myth-related themes which gave the library a broad base.” (see email from DT, 2014). The Avalon Library Association was incorporated as a limited company, with David as Secretary until 1989.

A committee was established, which set up a membership system and began raising funds, collecting books and contacting suitable authors “who mostly gave generously.” They established the cataloguing system that is still in use today. In 1989 they prepared a major appeal and designed a brochure that defined the library’s aims as “To collate a unique archive of British mythology,” together with acting as a library of reference and lending, encouraging the academic study of British mythology,  republishing rare source material, offering research facilities, and organising symposia, conferences and workshops. (See Avalon Library Association, Foundation Appeal, 1989).

In September 1989 the planned public launch took place, with a high-profile appeal for funds and books:

The Marquess of Bath, who has in his own library at Longleat some of the manuscripts from the original Glastonbury Abbey library, is one of the Vice Presidents of the Appeal. The others are Dr George Carey, the Bishop of Bath and Wells, and David Heathcote-Amory MP. The President is James Carley, author of ‘Glastonbury Abbey.’ (6)

The library project was supported by Helene Koppejan, who provided the back room, initially free of charge. David, however, stood down once the appeal had been launched. His own business, the EarthSpirit retreat centre in Compton Dundon, was taking more and more of his attention. Barry Taylor had joined the committee by then, and together with Kathy Jones and Sue Barnet put energy into carrying the project forward. Barry and Kathy in particular “were both inspired by the vision of recreating the famous library of the old Abbey.” This vision was if anything more ambitious than ever:

A library suitable for the newly reborn Glastonbury as a great centre of international pilgrimage … It would contain at least one copy of all the classics of every religion and faith plus all the modern classics, and there would be CDs, tapes and videos. There would be a publishing department printing selected titles now out of print. We would actively seek out books to complete the library from private collections and, in particular, we would try to find any of the missing books from the old Abbey library that might still be in existence. There would be an excellent research facility used by the students of various colleges and by the media of the world. Lectures and seminars on matters directly related to the library would be offered. (4)

The first symposium at the library consisted of a debate between Geoffrey Ashe, who was a leading authority on King Arthur and related matters, and Kathy Jones, whose experience with Ariadne Productions had shown the transformative power of myth and legend. This set the tone, and a growing group of influential founder members asked for volunteers and for donations of books, both of which turned up in surprising numbers. By the end of the year the library had three hundred titles on its shelves and 43 paid-up members, with an expanding programme of evening events. (5)

The emphasis was shifted from being a library of mythology to being a library ‘of the human spirit,’ and it had soon moved into the larger front room at 8a Market Place. Plans for re-housing the library in more prestigious premises formed by rebuilding the GE’s Market Place properties were seriously entertained, though they could not be justified without the library generating sufficient money to pay the GE a realistic rent. Its modest income was unlikely to be substantially increased, and research was carried out to see how other similar libraries were financed …

There really wasn't space in the book to include much about the people as people, their backgrounds and characters. I'm aware that this is a weakness, but I decided to fit as much as possible of the story in which meant that other stuff had to be left out. When Palden Jenkins was looking at the manuscript wityh his editorial hat on he picked up on this and suggested including a series of personal anecdotes about what life was like, and gave me this one from himself as an example:

As a self-employed person trying to keep on top of the discipline and demands of my work, I had some problem dealing with the people coming into town to lift off the top of their heads and groove out. To me it would be a busy Wednesday, and to them it was their big break-out, the trip of a lifetime. I'd be in the middle of editing a book on a deadline and the doorbell would go. There would be someone who had seen me at a conference in Australia seven years before, who had come all this way specially to see me, apparently, standing there smiling, expecting to take over my day with cosmic interchange and communion.Sometimes they got a cup of tea and half an hour.

On the other hand, when I was in a fit state for it, it was a great honour to be a Glastonbury host, meeting people for lunch in Rainbow's End or for a walk up the Tor, and giving the visitors a, to them, profoundly magical and memorable experience. It's easy, when living in a place like Glastonbury, to forget how significant it is for people from Nottingham, Dusseldorf, Seattle or Brisbane to come here, to get here at last, and to bathe and sometimes drown in its deep waters, wowing wildly. Interfacing the world of cosmic vibrations with officialdom, timetables, agendas and bill-paying realities, and crossing rapidly between worlds, is one of the great things I learned in Glastonbury.

Then there were the TV people from proliferating channels in Britain and anywhere from Norway to Pennsylvania to Japan who would e-mail me as webmaster of the Isleofavalon site, demanding interview time, contacts, information, views and camera-time on a range of things, from mystical Glastonbury to ley lines to the future of the world. Invariably, when the camera crew got here from London, late of course, and I was being interviewed on Chalice Hill with the Tor inevitably behind me, they would find out that I, together with the subject I was being interviewed about, was far more interesting than they had realised and planned for. 

Having timetabled three hours for covering Glastonbury to interview four people, they lost track of time and interviewed me for three hours, and then panicked. After editorial treatment back in London, I became a 12-second, two paragraph snip two-thirds of the way through the programme. Some of them, grimacing in a sceptical, cosmopolitan way when they found out I was an astrologer, landed up coming back a few years later when they had lost their jobs or had a personal crisis, asking for an astrological session! They were suddenly out of the game, and people like me in Glastonbury - there were many others too - served as a lifeline for them.

One episode that didn't make it into the book, though perhaps it should have done, was the evening in 1987 when a coach load of people from the Glastonbury Assembly Rooms went up to HTV West's Bristol studio for a show called 'The Weekend Starts Here,' an informal chat/magazine show. This story appeared in the 'Times of Avalonia' but it is absolutely true:

What fascinates me is how they managed to get us there, encouraged to wear 'lots of bright coloured clothes,' without having any idea what the show was about - and when we arrived, there on the other side of the studio was another audience, from the Nailsea Operatic Society, who'd been persuaded to come in formal evening wear, dickie-bows and starched collars. The contrast was quite noticeable.

The dress rehearsal was a run-through of interviews and sketches, with a phone-in poll whilst the show was going on of 'Do you think it's still a man's world?' (57% thought it was, but no matter) - the guests included Jilly Cooper and a collection of women doing 'men's' jobs, including the captain of the Clevedon ladies' rugby team. The thing was, they kept calling all the women 'ladies,' even the highly feminist car mechanic and carpenter, who eventually said they were women not ladies, and up went a cheer from the Glastonbury audience. The management said well done and they could do with some more of that when we went on air. We'd already caught a few comments going over the mikes about "We've got a right lot here from Glastonbury," and "I thought Pilton festival ended in August."

Then came the munchies break when we got to mingle and meet these types. The captain of the ladies' rugby team got her special hair-do mussed up by some young anarchists from the impromptu Glastonbury Women's Rugby Team. A prop that went with one part of the show, a wooden signpost with GLASTONBURY written on it, got a circle chalked around the A when no-one was looking. Also someone produced a large bag full of home-grown, and by the time the show a was ready to go out (live) we were up for much more pranks and capers.

So we sat there toking (one floor-crew guy said "Look, you're not supposed to smoke in here - please put it out or else give it to me"), and strange people and things started going on - including several professional actors, mostly from local pantomimes, who hadn't been there for the rehearsal. A short sketch taken from a slushy romantic novel set the tone; and there was a man with topical jokes ("We asked Ian Botham if he preferred playing on grass or Astroturf. He said he hadn't tried smoking Astroturf"); and the woman carpenter very bravely said "I don't want to talk about myself, I want to talk about the fact that everybody on the studio crew here is a man ..." at which the presenter quickly cut her off and went immediately into the adverts, with howls and shouting from the Glastonbury benches.

The second half included the world's worst impressionist (the straight audience laughed at him and we laughed at them), a totally hammed-up item about ghosts, a rustic type describing a walk round historic and legendary Glastonbury, and various other nonsense, some of which was deliberately slanted in an effort to wind us up.

The presenter and one or two of the actors picked up on us and seemed to enjoy getting a reaction, even if it was negative. We broke all the studio audience rules by not laughing if it wasn't funny and not applauding if it wasn't any good. The main problem and cause of all the mayhem was that the material was so boring. Nevertheless everyone who went had a wonderful time and the woman who'd actually set up our coach trip - some sort of programme assistant at HTV - was seriously worried that she'd lose her job. This morning there are people in town saying we were the most unruly TV audience ever to appear on the air and we presented quite the wrong impression of Glastonbury and it didn't ought to be allowed. Never mind.

The history of Glastonbury's alternative community is now printed, and in the process of being published. Its official launch date will be June 6th, with a book launch in the Glastonbury Assembly Rooms that evening.

The purpose of this page is - to quote from the book's introduction:

What I have noticed is that reading about what happened in, say, the eighties, or talking about it, brings up all sorts of memories for people; and some of the memories will seem important enough that they should have been included in the book. And sometimes this will be correct, but it will be a bit late now. 

So if you have comments, experiences or additional information that you would have liked to see included, you can email them to me for inclusion, or you can add them as comments, below. I shall also be adding material myself, as and when it comes to mind.

I cannot guarantee that any particular submission will find its way into a new edition of the book, but they will all be considered.

Full details of the book are here:
www.unique-publications.co.uk/free-state.html
And if you are interested in wholesale orders please email me at:
bruce@glastonbury.co.uk