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The University Library has recently been the beneficiary of large donations of books from the disbanded modern language collections of the libraries of the University of Bradford and the University of the West of England. We received more than 2,000 non-duplicate titles from Bradford, of which approximately 60% were in French, and another 650 French titles from the University of the West of England. Most of these items have now been incorporated into the UL’s collections, with notes on all of the books’ catalogue records to reflect the provenance of the material.

These donations consist principally, although not entirely, of books from the mid- to late-20th century. French fiction predominates, but French politics, linguistics (including many language studies of French-speaking Canada) and autobiography/memoir are also well represented in these collections. The donations give an interesting insight into the French collecting activities of different UK academic libraries in earlier decades.

As a result of these donations, the UL’s coverage of the following French authors has increased significantly : Bernard Clavel ; Pierre Daninos ; Jacques Lanzmann ; Alain Peyrefitte ; Plantu ; Henri Queffélec ; Emmanuel Roblès ; Georges Simenon ; André Stil ; Jean Sulivan ; Henri Troyat ; Boris Vian.