For more than 50 years, Waltraud Jarrold has been a leading light in the running of the annual Feed the Minds Book Fair in Norwich. Folk Features went to meet her and find out what has motivated her for all these years
Waltraud Jarrold may be 95, but she is still busy leading the volunteers who are getting ready for the annual Feed the Minds Book Fair in Norwich, starting this Thursday. In fact, during our 90-minute chat at her home in Cringleford, the phone keeps ringing and Waltraud happily answers various queries relating to this year’s event.
Waltraud has been involved with the Book Fair for more than 50 years, which is an impressive stint by anyone’s standards.
The Fair was set up to support the UK-based Christian development charity Free the Minds and provide Christian and other literature, mainly to developing countries. This year, funds raised will go towards the promotion of literacy, generally, and, more specifically, to support a project in the Bombali district of Sierra Leone.
The charity was started by Donald Coggan in the autumn of 1964, when he was Archbishop of York, as a campaign called ‘The Archbishop of York’s Fund to Feed the Minds of Millions’.
Waltraud had come to Norwich a decade or so earlier, in 1953, having left her German hometown of Winningen, near Koblenz. During that initial stay, and through Holy Trinity Church in NR2, she met Richard Jarrold. After finishing his studies at Queens’ College in Cambridge, Richard joined the 5th Royal Horse Artillery Regiment, stationed in Germany, allowing for him to make frequent visits to his future wife.
They married in 1958 and, a year later, he would become Managing Director of Jarrold, the Norwich institution. The couple were instrumental in setting up the twinning of Norwich and Koblenz, and Waltraud was made an MBE for her services to the community of Norwich in 2009, an honour she describes as an ‘amazing, amazing surprise’. It reflected her involvement with the Norwich Feed the Minds committee, the Norwich Koblenz Friendship Association, and the Norfolk and Norwich local help group of The National Meningitis Trust. Richard passed away in 2019, survived by his wife, daughters Caroline and Michelle, and grandchildren Max, Felix, Elliott, Louisa and Alice.
Waltraud continues to lead the volunteers for the Norwich Book Fair, and she has fond memories of the very first Fair, held in St Gregory’s Church, located between Pottergate and St Benedict’s Street. ‘St Gregory’s was absolutely brilliant,’ says Waltraud.
The Book Fair has been based in various churches in the city centres over the years, but nowadays its home is St Andrews Church, next to Cinema City. ‘We have been there for eight years or more and it’s so beautifully situated,’ says Waltraud. ‘This church lends itself to display. We put tabletops on the pews, and there are all the different book sections.’
The upcoming event will offer something for every book lover, ranging from romance to history, music to cookery, academia to nearly new, plus much more. ‘There’s everything there,’ promises Waltraud.
On Saturday, the last day, there will be a Silent Auction. ‘I started a Silent Auction because I realised there were books that I didn’t want to put a fixed price on that were of special value or local value,’ she says, ‘so we’ve organised that and it’s been very well received.’
The family business plays its own part in the proceedings in the run-up to the event: the team at the Jarrold Warehouse on Bessemer Road store the books, which is rather important. ‘They see it as making a contribution to our cause,’ says Waltraud. ‘They then bring them to the Church the day before the start of our Book Fair.’
Nowadays Jonathan Piesse plays a vital role in organising the Norwich Book Fair, and Waltraud is keen to give this a special mention, but it would be fair to say that her involvement remains ‘all-encompassing.’
Although Waltraud has ‘always been surrounded by books’ (her sister and her husband started their own publishing company, for example), her real motivation to be involved with the Feed the Minds Book Fair runs much deeper than love of books, as she explains:
‘My motivation has always been the importance of the guidance and the teaching of people in their own country – and introducing the help they need and the motivation to be fully educated in every sense so they can contribute to their country – and not be tempted to leave and face the unknown.
‘It’s really about the wellbeing of the people in their own country – that has always been my very strong motivation. That’s the shining light over everything.’
The Norwich Book Fair 2023, in support of Feed the Minds, takes place at St Andrew’s Church, St Andrew’s Street, Norwich NR2 4AD, from Thursday July 13 to Saturday July 15 (10am to 4.30pm, apart from the Saturday when it is 10am to 3pm). It will be opened by The Lord Mayor, Mr James Wright, on Thursday and the Silent Auction takes place at 12 noon on Saturday. Admission is free. Volunteers are needed from today (July 10). Please call 01603 744233, if you can help. Visit www.feedtheminds.org
Leave a Reply