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Bobby Seagull has spoken movingly about his lifelong love of libraries after being awarded an MBE for services to public libraries.Appearing on GB News, Seagull told Eamonn Holmes and Penny Smith that his passion for reading was shaped by weekly visits to East Ham Library during his childhood in the 1990s.“It’s an honour to speak to you both,” he said. “Growing up, my brothers and I went to the library every single Saturday with my dad. "And on Fridays we’d watch you on the telly, so if I saw you on a Friday, I knew the weekend meant a trip to the library.”WATCH THE CLIP ABOVE FOR MORE
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who we talked to as a maths teacher
0:04
And I thought, Bobby, you would have got this in recognition for what you've done in promoting mathematics to the general public
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But no, not the case. Yeah, for my work in libraries, firstly, I want to say Eamon and Penny
0:16
it's an honour to speak to you because, again, part of my story is that growing up in the 90s
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I used to visit the library every single Saturday with my dad and my brothers
0:26
And actually, on Fridays, we'd watch you on the telly, both of you, in the 90s
0:30
You would set me up. I'm like, if I see you on a Friday, I'm like, OK, parents, we need to go to the library
0:34
So thank you. It's such an honour to speak to you both. Good lad. Good lad. Anyway, so services to public libraries
0:40
Yeah. So when you look through, you've looked through... So this is for services to libraries
0:45
Is that what we're talking about in particular? Yes, libraries not to maths. Right. Yeah. That's correct
0:49
So can I do the story about how I got the letter? So I got the letter and it says, you can see here
0:54
on His Majesty's service. And at first I thought, I thought, am I being recruited as a spy
0:59
I'm like far too noisy for that. Then I thought oh could it be jury duty Well that could be interesting And I opened it up and it said Bobby Seagal New Year Honours MB for service to public libraries And immediately I thought yes I took I remember my library card and a massive thank you to the libraries and the librarians
1:17
Because as I mentioned, Eamon and Penny, in the 90s, my family had this lovely routine
1:21
So my parents came from Kerala in South England to London, East London, which is a happy hammer or unhappy hammer at the moment
1:28
and we had a routine every Saturday. My mum would make a really delicious biryani lunch
1:32
Thank you, mum. And then me and my brothers would trudge down East Ham High Street
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ostensibly to do some shopping. But my dad would take us to East Ham Library. We'd sit cross-legged, which I can't do now
1:42
I need to do some yoga. We'd sit there reading all sorts of books
1:46
on the fiction of Tolkien, the Aztecs, Victorian engineering, the marbles there
1:53
And actually, it was the week after week, month after month, year after year, that gave me the knowledge and skills to be the person I am today
1:58
In fact, like my first media break was back in 2017 on University Challenge
2:04
And when I had my interviews and my TV shows after that, I always say yes I am a knowledgeable person I tell my students but I wasn born that way I became knowledgeable and clever by reading by going to the library being inspired by good teachers So again maybe in another lifetime I already got my service to master education but I really happy because I think libraries and books and reading and knowledge is so important to our communities
2:24
Hold on a second, Bobby. So we're saying when we say services to public libraries, you mean or they mean for constantly being in the public library and cluttering it up by sitting cross-legged and reading all the books
2:38
Partly that. I mean, I am part of four book clubs. I read lots of books here
2:42
But it's also my campaigning. So after being on Universe Challenge, getting my own road trip show, there are a lot of interviews
2:50
And in interviews, I always say, actually, it's libraries that made me the person I am. And then since then, there's a public body called CILIP, who are the professional body for librarians
2:58
They made me their UK libraries champion after the likes of Dame Mary Beard and Sir Stephen Fry
3:03
And then the reading agency made me their charity ambassadors. Let me ask you something Yours is an amazing story and great that you were inspired by libraries But Penny and I were talking during the break as to I mean she a good or has been in the past a really good library user Loved her library I have my own memories of it how I came from a very crammed house
3:29
There were five boys there, two and a half bedrooms, and the library was somewhere you could escape to
3:34
But it doesn't feature my life anymore. And I want to ask you now, whose life does libraries feature in anymore
3:44
It's a really excellent question, Eamon. And again, sometimes when I've done lobbying work with politicians and counsellors
3:49
I'll tell them these stories. I still go most weeks to my library. Apologies to my librarians
3:54
Slightly sweaty after gym. It's quite functional to do that. But I'll turn up and I'll see that
3:59
there'll be times where there's Zumba classes, seated Zumba classes for the elderly
4:03
There are parents with young children with the toddler groups. There are teenagers actually in study clubs over there
4:09
There are chess clubs, coding groups. Even like I've seen like a salsa class
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I don't take part. My dancing skills are not great, but I see this. Obviously, books and libraries are the main reason, I think, for libraries
4:19
But I think they're the beating hearts of our communities because we know that high streets are being eviscerated
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