News and updates
The North London Reading Group is a reading group based around the Piccadilly line in North London. This is what we've been up to recently.
Do you:
* know your Triffids from your Vogons?
* delight in the terror of carnival mirror-mazes or getting lost in the secret city beneath London?
* enjoy the humorous side of Death in Discworld?
* want to meet like-minded readers for monthly London-based science fiction/fantasy book discussion?
A mad scientist amongst us is applying the cables to give birth to a freshly stitched and tightly bolted new reading group dedicated to science fiction and fantasy.
If you are interested in joining the experiment and donating your brain to the cause, there will be a gathering at 7PM on Tuesday 24 August at the Silver Cross pub on Whitehall. The objective will be to meet each other and select a date, hostelry and tome for a first meeting.
If you would like to join in sign-up to our mailing list, mentioning you are interested in the Science Fiction Fantasy Reading Group.
Image courtesy of Jim Linwood's Flickr Photostream.
London South Bank University (LSBU) has contacted us to let us know they are running three short writing courses in September and October:
* Introduction to creative writing
* Romantic fiction writing
* Advanced prose.
So if you fancy making the transition from reading to writing, download LSBU's flyer (PDF, 19KB) for more details.
Thanks to everybody who made Bookstock — our very first literary evening — such as success on Sat 31 July. Pictures, videos and comments from the night are now live on the Bookstock microsite.
It was wonderful to see so many new faces. Please sign up to our mailing list if you haven't already and we'll let you know about further events, notices of any spaces across the North London Reading groups and details of when we are setting up new groups.
Thanks partly to mentions in the Evening Standard, Time Out, Londonist and New Books Magazine, this Saturday's Bookstock is sold out we have no more tickets left!
Lily Hyde, a childrens' author influenced by her 10 years in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, has kindly stepped in to take over from Claire Sandling after her baby emerged to the world a month early (congratulations Claire and thanks Lily!)
Read more about Bookstock
The North London Reading Group has taken over a pub in central London on Saturday 31 July for our very first literary evening - Bookstock!
Eight very varied local authors will be reading, performing and discussing their works in a beautiful Edwardian room in the Blue Posts pub in W1. In between there will be comedy, poetry, competitions, reasonably priced beverages (courtesy of Mr. Samuel Smith), and plenty of socialising and book swapping.
Read the full line up
On Thursday 15 July,the Barbican Centre is putting on an event called Words in association with its Surreal House exhibition, which includes:
* the Theatre of the Absurd performing 'What Lovely Weather'
* artists Anna Barham, Malin Stahl, Philomene Pirecki and Elizabeth McAlpine exploring the spoken and written word
* the Barbican Young Poets will be responding to the Surreal House exhibition with a selection of new poetry readings.
For more information, visit the Barbican Centre's website.
Annalie Wilson has alerted us to her intimate monthly evening at the Poetry Cafe in Covent Garden. Annalie sings and plays piano accompanied by a bassist, and her lyrics-led music appeals to those with an interest in poetry.
The audience are also offered a chance to read their own poems. Annalie tells us it's attracted an unusual collection of people and is always a lot of fun. She's offered a special Book Group discount rate of £4 per ticket (usually £5 each).
The next event is Sat 3rd July (after our Wildean afternoon) and more information can be found on Annalie's website or this flyer.
The BBC World Service is looking for guests for its World Book Club on Thur 15 July. Barbara Kingsolver — who recently trumped Wolf Hall author Hilary Mantel to win the 2010 Orange Prize — will be talking about her 'book group classic' The Poisonwood Bible.
The show takes place at Bush House in London from 16:15, and details are available on this flyer. (PDF, 1.6MB)
If you would like join the audience and put a question to Barbara Kingsolver about The Poisonwood Bible, email the Beeb at worldbookclub@bbc.co.uk. Tell 'em we sent you.
The number of reading groups in the North London Reading Group Network has hit double figures!
At the Yorkshire Grey in Holborn on Mon 10 and Tues 11 May we kicked off two new book groups:
* Group 10 will meet on Thur 10 June to discuss God's Own Country by Ros Raisin
* Group 11 will meet on Tues 8 June from 7PM to discuss A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood.
Both groups should hopefully be meeting at The Old Dairy in Crouch Hill, which given the number of book group meetings there over recent months must be raking it in on our behalf!
There was a large turnout both nights so there may be a need to subdivide into smaller groups. We'll see how things pan out at the meetings. Thanks to all those who came — it was great to meet new faces and we hope you'll also join us at the events below.
We are having a decadent, book-soaked and worry-free Sunday afternoon on 6 June.
Members of all North London Reading Groups are invited to a 'boutique pub' in Islington from 4pm for drinks and to swap books.
The Public House is on Islington Park Street (N1 1PX) and has great beers, wines, cocktails and decor. It'll be an ideal location for groups to catch up with each other, gather recommendations, and fill our bookshelves!
Simply turn up with a book or two that you'd like to recommend to other book group members or see go to a good home.
We'll be joining the fab London Walks people on 3 July to trace the footsteps of Oscar Wilde, before retiring for a picnic in Green Park.
Meet at 10.50am (the walk leaves at 11am) at Green Park tube. Bring your picnic goodies, rug and £7 payable to the London Walks guide.
The walk finishes near Fortnum & Mason if anyone is in need of some special picnic treats. We will find a spot in Green Park afterwards, unless it is wet — in which case we will retire to a convenient pub instead. Note the walk will leave no matter what the weather!
A description of the Oscar Wilde walk is available on the London Walks website.
Leigh Russell, Watford-based author of effective crime debut Cut Short has drawn our attention to a literary evening on Wed 2 June.
She will be joining a panel of crime writers at the spanking new Westfield Library in Shepherd's Bush from 6:30 PM. Other participants include Tom Cain, author of the Carver novels, and military thriller writer Matt Lynn.
The panel will be discussing issues relating to their writing, and inviting questions and comments from the audience.
Looking to join a reading group? We are hoping to hatch two new book groups on two separate evenings over Mon 10 and Tues 11 May.
From 6:30 PM we'll be meeting in at the Yorkshire Grey in Holborn, near Chancery Lane (note - please don't go to the identically named pub in Fitzrovia!) to:
* introduce everybody
* agree a format for the group
* choose a date and book for the first meeting.
We've done this twice already this year, and the groups that have formed are going full steam ahead. If you are interested please contact us to let us know which of the two dates you can make.
Looking to join a reading group? As a special Easter treat, we are hoping to hatch a new book group on either Mon 10 or Tues 11 May.
We'll be meeting in a pub between Kings Cross and Finsbury Park, from 6:45 PM to:
* introduce everybody
* agree a format for the group
* choose a date and book for the first meeting.
We've done this twice already this year, and the groups that have formed are going full steam ahead. If you are interested please contact us to let us know which of the two dates you can make.
Or, if you only read chick lit, try here instead.
After being frankly bemused by Gordon Burn's 'news as a novel' Born Yesterday we've higher hopes for Christopher Isherwood's A Single Man. Set in 1962, it tells of a college professor trying to find meaning in his life after the death of his partner.
Will we love it as much as Revolutionary Road, our last literary-film tie in? We're hoping to check out the film adaptation out this week, too. Get in touch if you are interested in joining us, unless you like those ghastly cheesy nacho things, that is.
We've just been informed of the Second Readers' Voice Convention, which takes place on 27 March in Oxford.
It features performance reading, advice for reading groups, discussions on reading technologies old and new, classics and moderns, workshops on reading for the whole community, storytelling, and reading in prisons.
You've just got to love — and be slightly horrified by the thought of — this cartoon from its website.
We've had almost as many enquiries as snowflakes since the new year, and have founded two further book groups in our North London Reading Group network as a result:
* Reading Group 8 met to discuss Graham Greene's End of The Affair at Smithy's Wine Bar on 1 Feb, and are now busily reading the Booker-winning White Tiger.
* Reading Group 9 was born in The Old Dairy in Crouch End on Tues 16 Feb and chose to tackle the recently departed J.D.Salinger's Catcher In The Rye.
We are also currently filling vacancies across existing groups. If you want to join one of our London book groups, join our mailing list to be kept up to date with the latest opportunities.
Local author Rick Senley has sent us a copy of his ironic take on a Victorian murder mystery, Moustache Man and the Deadly Whiskers.
According to its website, it's 'a tragic tale of one man's descent from a dishy fellow about town to the wretched underbelly of Victorian London' and features gaudy gin palaces, upper-class supper clubs, Chinese opium dens and Newgate Prison. So it's probably right up Pete Doherty's street.
Watch this space to find what we think. In the meantime you can read an excerpt or order a copy on the Moustache Man website and help prevent a similarly tragic downfall on Rick's part.
