These were corridors where you didn’t see a living soul… piles of books on the ground, as though it had been ploughed or was undergoing some upheaval. Table legs, glass, cupboard doors and splinters of wood were mixed up with the paper… like a Pre-Cambrian volcanic eruption, when magmatic and early sedimentary rocks were formed, the earth’s crust started to fold, oxygen in the air was below one per cent and it was the kingdom of the prokaryotes. The air was so oppressive and sweaty that you almost felt ill. There was a smell of decomposing wood. Here the books were black; they crumbled like peat if you touched them…