reading / ˈriːdɪŋ

Welcome to ‘The Reading Room,’ a guided book group, exploring novels, short stories — and sometimes plays and poems! — through a combination of conversation and focused questions.

Give yourself time to read — and to talk about what you’ve read.

We opened up ‘The Reading Room’ for the very first time in September 2021 with Elizabeth Macneal’s gripping novel The Doll Factory.

The evening was spent in a gently guided conversation around the book, learning more about both the novel itself and the historical era in which it was set. There was plenty to time to talk and to listen, and we all came away feeling that we had learned something — as well as enjoyed the discussion.

Since then, we’ve read a range of texts — some new, some classics — and the group has grown. The conversation remains the focus, and our shared joy in reading and talking.

For anyone who loves books and reading, this is a chance to spend a couple of hours with people properly discussing a book.  Led by our enthusiastic and very knowledgeable guide Pippa, we learnt about the historical background; we looked at the construction of the story; we shared what had enthused us and what would stay with us from the characters.  It was glorious to use both intellect and emotion in understanding what we had read, and it was also wonderful to be doing that with others who felt the same.  

Jane

Check out our programme for 2025 here — and, if you’d like to join us for one or more of the sessions, please email to save your seat!

It was wonderful to have had Pippa’s input and expertise on the novel’s background. In the most positive way possible, the evening remind me of very enjoyable, small-group seminars at university were everyone feels comfortable and has the space to speak.

Steffi

We will be reading new texts as well as revisiting some old favourites, perhaps seeing them in a new light, and even some poetry.

I thoroughly enjoyed ‘The Reading Room’. Pippa prepared some fascinating background information for the group and she steered the discussion in a light-hearted, but expert, fashion. I would definitely recommend that you give this innovative book-reading experience a try.

Vivianne

If you have any questions — or would like to request a particular book! — please get in touch. I’m also very happy to come and facilitate a discussion at your own book group — whether for a book you’ve chosen or one that I could suggest.

This was a lovely evening – a joy to spend several hours discussing a book without all the usual distractions of work and family which tend to take over some reading groups. I really enjoyed the guided format which was very gentle but introduced ideas I would not have thought of and made me want to reread the book. I felt very comfortable speaking in this group which I don’t always and I really enjoyed Pippa’s knowledge and research of the background to the book.

Charlotte

You can reserve your seat in The Reading Room now by emailing to let us know when you’d like to join us. We meet on the last Wednesday and Thursday of each month at 7.30pm.

See you in the Reading Room!

Pippa

What we’ve already read:

The King’s Pawn by Lucy Hooft

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

The World’s Wife by Carol Ann Duffy

Liberation Day by George Saunders

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

Trespasses by Louise Kennedy

March by Geraldine Brooks and Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Armin

The Night Field by Donna Glee Williams

Vladivostock Circus by Elisa Shua Duspain

The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho by Paterson Joseph

The Sleeping Car Porter by Suzette Mayr

The Painter’s Daughters by Emily Howe

For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain by Victoria MacKenzie

After the Funeral by Tessa Hadley

The Years by Annie Ernaux

Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad

The Amorous Prince by Aphra Behn, and two poems

Enlightenment by Sarah Perry

Love by Elizabeth von Arnim