📚 🚶Our December Walkers' Walks
and Our Books 📚 Of The Year!
Dear walking book clubbers,
We made it to the end of 2022! (Nearly!)
Here is a moment to reflect on our books of 2022, before we leap into 2023.
First, time for our December instalment of our feature that shines a light on your walking habits, this time with wonderful book clubber Stina, who reminds me just how special Hampstead Heath is.
Stina’s walk
Stina has been part of Emily’s Walking Book Club for a wonderfully long time. The earliest emails I can find between us go back to 2016, when Stina suggested we might try a Dallowday walk through Mayfair (I took note and we did eventually do a Mrs Dalloway walk in 2021, though it was on the Heath). Stina has been such a thoughtful and positive force on our walks over the years; now her humblingly intelligent contributions come via Zoom.
I love the way that Stina’s walk draws attention to just how special a place Hampstead Heath is. Perhaps I take it for granted a little, with the walking book clubs being so focussed on the books, but Stina reminds me here of the immense beauty of the Heath, with its views across London, its trees and wildlife, and also the opportunity it offers for quietness and solitude - a vital place to think in this crowded city.
I walk around the Heath a few times a week come rain or shine, and this is one of my favourite spots high up on the sandy hills above the Vale of Health. It is quite isolated and has a glorious view of London.
Because my cancer treatment makes me immunosuppressed, I have to stay away from groups of people in loud conversation as best I can, and I find the left side of the Heath through the woods a wonderful space to enjoy the trees and the wildlife and my own thoughts, often on the interesting books Emily has chosen for the book club. And I am of course immensely grateful for the continuation of the zoom discussions! Â
I have known and walked on the Heath for over half a century and hope to carry on doing so for a while. I am after all only 79...
How about your walks?
I would LOVE to hear about your walking life. When you have a chance, please reply to this email with a snap or two of a walk that is meaningful to you (please check you have permission to share if anyone else is in your photo; landscape format rather than portrait tends to sit best), along with a couple of lines about the walk and why it’s special to you.
Our Books of 2022
I have loved sharing these books with you:
January: I Capture the Castle (1949) by Dodie Smith
February: Territory of Light (1978-9) by Yuko Tsushima translated by Geraldine Harcourt
March: The Hare with Amber Eyes (2010) by Edmund de Waal
April: Things Fall Apart (1958) by Chinua Achebe
May: Death and the Penguin (1996) by Andrey Kurkov translated by George Bird
June: Childhood (1967) by Tove Ditlevsen translated by Tiina Nunnally
July: The Gold-Rimmed Spectacles (1958) by Giorgio Bassani translated by Jamie McKendrick
September: Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont (1971) by Elizabeth Taylor
October: By the Sea (2001) by Abdulrazak Gurnah
November: A Fortunate Man (1967) by John Berger & Jean Mohr
December: A Touch of Mistletoe (1967) by Barbara Comyns
Have you read them all? Are there any that you absolutely loved? Or hated? Any that have led you to explore a different direction in your reading habits? Drop me a line and let me know, or leave a comment below.
If you scroll through (or search in) the ARCHIVE section of this newsletter, you can find much more about each of these books. You can also find 15 min webcasts about each of them on my Youtube channel @emilyrhodeswriter HERE.
A few statistics about our 2022 books:
4 out of 11 are works in translation
5 out of 11 are by women
2 out of 11 are by people of colour
7 are fiction; 2 are non-fiction; 2 are somewhere between the two, as works of auto-fiction.
1 was first published in 1900-1950; 8 were from 1951-99; 2 were from 2000-2022. Surprisingly 3 books were published in 1967!
Our most popular walking book club (according to ticket sales) was February’s Territory of Light walk, with 44 attendees.
We now have 1200 subscribers to this newsletter! Thank you so much for your support and enthusiasm over the year. Bring on 2023! A reminder that you can now book in for all three of our Spring 2023 walks with just one ticket, here:
Do you know anyone who would like to read along with us? Why not forward this email on? And remember it’s never too late to give a gift subscription:
January 2023
Brother of the More Famous Jack by Barbara Trapido
Katherine leaves drab suburban life for the wilds of university and the ebullient family of her Jewish leftist philosophy professor ... There follows romance, heartbreak, a spell in Rome, a return to London, and along the way masses of sex, wit, wild clothes, abject misery, utter joy ...
This widely admired and deeply adored classic is an absolute delight - I can't wait to share it with you!
Why did I pick it? When I finally got around to reading this book a few months’ ago, I couldn’t believe I’d missed out on its absolute joy for so long. It is a treasure about growing up, falling in love, losing and finding your way - and much of it is set in and around Hampstead. When I posted about it on Instagram (here), the overwhelmingly enthusiastic response encouraged me to fast-track this one. It’s in a not dissimilar vein to December’s Barbara Comyns, so for those of you who want to stay in the life-affirming, sad-but-funny, coming-of-age zone, this is your ideal next book.
Tickets are now on sale!
On the Heath: Sunday 22nd January, 11.30-1pm, setting off from Daunt Books Hampstead, 51 South End Road, NW3 2QB, £5-15
On Zoom: Monday 23rd January, 8-8.40pm, £1-10
Live Discussion Thread: Friday 27th January, 1.30-2pm We’re going to try these half an hour earlier in the hope of better coinciding with your lunch breaks. These threads are a chance to share what else we’ve been reading, watching and listening to over the month, as well as discussing the book.
Buy Brother of the More Famous Jack from Daunt Books HERE and receive 10% off using the code WBC at checkout, or just tell them you’re in the group if you’re buying it in the shop.
Happy reading, and Happy New Year!
Emily