📚 🚶Coming back to reality
Things to look forward to with Emily's Walking Book Club this Autumn
Dear walking book clubbers,
This photo of the sunrise, taken (by my son Ezra) from the ferry as we began our journey home from the beautiful Italian island of Elba, made me think about how the end of one thing is of course also the beginning of something new. (And it’s a great picture of half - or perhaps a third - of a yellow sun, tying in neatly with our next book!) So here is a short email taking a moment to reflect on the summer nearing its end and looking forward to the exciting autumn ahead.
Looking back
How has the summer been for you? Did you enjoy some time in the sun (or in the shade) with a good book? Did you have any adventures that made real life momentarily more thrilling than fiction? Did you find any space away from the usual routine to begin a new project? Did you have family or friends to stay? Were you run off your feet looking after children, or grandchildren?
I’ve been oscillating between home weeks of juggling work, writing, kids, cooking, cleaning and the rest of it (with the help of our lovely teenage neighbour who seems not to mind the challenge of three kids endlessly wanting to brush her hair / have a snack / colour things in), and away weeks of trying to unplug and escape from everything. We spent a very peaceful week on the Italian island of Elba, which reminded me a little of the Emily’s Walking Book Club classic, Elizabeth von Arnim’s The Enchanted April. For much of the summer, I have LOVED being absolutely absorbed in the mesmerising, fascinating, and distressing Half of a Yellow Sun, our September book club pick. How are you getting on with it?
As many of you know, I recently founded the charity Bookbanks, which brings books to food banks. At the Newington Green Bookbank, the summer holidays means there have been more children than usual accessing the food bank. More than 1 in 12 UK children don’t own a single book of their own. To date, Bookbanks has distributed over 3,000 books to people accessing food banks. We are currently fundraising to partner with the Hammersmith & Fulham food bank this autumn to reach a new community. We have already sourced 8 volunteers from the book world ready to be trained to staff the stall on rotation each week; we’ve also sourced a wide range of books, and built a great relationship with the food bank staff and volunteers. We’ve now raised £8,000 towards the £10,000 needed to set it up and run it for a full calendar year. If you are able to help with a donation big or small, one-off or regular, please do:
Looking forward
I feel it’s always good to be looking forward to something at this time of year, rather than spending too much time gazing back wistfully over the departed summer. So, to help us all feel excited for the coming Autumn, ready to get back to real life with sharp pencils, fresh notebooks and sturdy new shoes, here are a few dates for your diary.
Our September Emily’s Walking Book Club dates:
Monday 2nd September Look out in your inbox for my introduction to our September book, Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie. This will kick off the weekly book group newsletter for the season, full of interesting links and inspiring ideas about the book.
Friday 13th, Sunday 15th, Monday 16th These are the dates for our Regent’s Park, Hampstead Heath, and Zoom book group meet ups: three chances to discuss Half of a Yellow Sun. You can book tickets here:
A bonus Barbara Comyns September book club
On Wednesday 11th September, the wonderful My Body My Book Club have invited me to be a special guest to discuss one of our recent favourites, A Touch of Mistletoe by Barbara Comyns. This brilliant tragicomic coming-of-age novel about Vicky, the awful things that happen to her, and how she overcomes them with resilience and a great sense of humour, is one that we book clubbers loved (you can see my little video about it HERE). All proceeds from ticket sales go to Bookbanks.
Also in September …
This is also the month for Maggie’s Night Hike, a great way to fundraise for the incredible Maggie’s centres, who provide really meaningful support for people living with cancer. If you fancy walking all night on Friday 27th September for a good cause, you can book in HERE.
A bonus book club for October
This October, I will be leading an unusually urban walking book club through the streets of Farringdon and Clerkenwell for a special event with the Goldsmiths’ Centre, discussing Diamond Street by Rachel Lichtenstein. As we walk the streets written about in this fascinating history of Hatton Garden and around, we’ll discuss themes from the book, such as craftsmanship, diasporic life, and London’s layers of history. This event is now going to be on the evening of 1st October (not the 2nd as previously advertised, as somehow I totally missed that this was Rosh Hashanah, whoops). Thanks again so much to walking book clubbers Erin and Charlotte, who invited me to lead the walk!
Our October Mrs Bridge events
I’m really excited about our own October pick, a subtly ironic, quietly devastating novel about a 1950s housewife, Mrs Bridge by Evan S. Connell. Tickets will go on sale next week for our October book club events on the 11th, 13th and 14th of the month. You can find details, booking links and info about our other Autumn books here:
Booking tickets
If you’re excited about our Autumn programme - and frankly, how couldn’t you be?! - then why not cut out the hassle of needing to book a ticket each time, and simply book one ticket for all four of our walks:
Contributing to our community
Thank you for being part of Emily’s Walking Book Club. I know many of you contribute to the book club in so many ways - sending me emails, taking photos, sharing book ideas and more, thank you. If you are able to pay me to help cover my time nurturing and growing our community then please consider paying £20/year, or £50/year to include a popular free reading consultation with me.
Look out for my intro to Half of a Yellow Sun next week!
Happy reading,
Emily