We are a friendly group of people who love reading. We aim to encourage an appreciation of Literature but you don’t need any experience of Literature, just curiosity and an enjoyment of reading.

We have monthly meetings from September to May where different topics are discussed each month, as well as a monthly ‘I Have Been Reading’ online group meeting and also a programme of poetry reading.

Our next meeting:
21st November 2024

A Miscellany of Favourites: “Becky Sharp”, Barbara Pym, Joanne Harris

Christopher Carter, Eileen Davis, Pat Vokes discuss their ‘favourites’, a character, Becky Sharp, and two novelists, Barbara Pym and Joanne Harris.

Becky Sharp (in Thackeray’s Vanity Fair) is a heroine or mischief maker who defies the previous feminine archetype in literature and engages our sympathy despite her disreputable behaviour.

Barbara Pym was a post-war novelist who had an unexpected renaissance in 1977. She was a shrewd observer of the middle class, described by the historian A L Rowse as “the Jane Austen de nos jours”.

Joanne Harris is a prolific and popular author whose books have been described by The Guardian as “astringent, highly organised and often subtly fantastic mainstream novels”.