Dear walking book clubbers,
I am thrilled to announce our Spring/Summer line up.
Here are four great books to welcome in Spring and enjoy over Summer after a punishing year. I can’t wait to discuss them with you - whether that’s on Hampstead Heath for our Sunday morning walks, or online in our new Monday evening Zooms.
Tickets for all our meetings go on sale on the first of the preceding month.
In the meantime, don’t forget we have Penelope Mortimer’s The Pumpkin Eater on Zoom next Sunday 28th March. Look out for more info about this stunning book in next week’s newsletter.
A reminder that these emails will always be free to those who need them to be, but if you are able to support Emily’s Walking Book Club by paying £15/year to subscribe, or £50/year to include a reading consultation with me, then please do.
April
Ring of Bright Water by Gavin Maxwell
In the 1950s, after travelling in Iraq, Gavin Maxwell made a home for himself in a remote part of Scotland, along with his new pet otter. Conjured in beautiful prose, this evocative and enduring account of man's relationship with the natural world is perfect escapist reading for anyone who has considered a radical change of living circumstances over the past year!
Emily’s Walking Book Club: Sunday 25th April, 11.30-1pm, setting off from Daunt Books Hampstead, 51 South End Road, NW3 2QB
Emily’s Zoom Book Club: Monday 26th April, 8-8.30pm
Buy Ring of Bright Water from Daunt Books here and receive 10% off using the code WBC at checkout.
May
At Freddie’s by Penelope Fitzgerald
Drawing on her own experience of working at a stage school - and her trademark dry wit, the Booker Prize-winning author takes us on a backstage tour of Freddie's establishment. Here we meet a host of eccentric misfits; none more so than the great Freddie herself... This is an affectionate, wonderfully enjoyable portrait of the theatre scene in 1960s London.
Emily’s Walking Book Club: Sunday 23rd May, 11.30-1pm.
Emily’s Zoom Book Club: Monday 24th May, 8-8.30pm.
Tickets go on sale on 1st April.
Buy At Freddie’s from Daunt Books here and receive 10% off using the code WBC at checkout.
June
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself. So begins one of the greatest works of twentieth-century fiction, as our protagonist sets out to walk through London in the middle of June, 1923. Woolf deftly explores the associated freewheeling meanderings of her protagonist's mind, and the links between Clarissa Dalloway and tragic, shell-shocked Septimus Warren Smith. Virginia Woolf has something of a formidable reputation, but this novel is very readable, absolutely compelling and - like Woolf's dissolving peals of Big Ben - its influence resounds.
Emily’s Walking Book Club: Sunday 13th June, 11.30-1pm.
Emily’s Zoom Book Club: Monday 14th June, 8-8.30pm.
Tickets go on sale on 1st May.
Buy Mrs Dalloway from Daunt Books here and receive 10% off using the code WBC at checkout.
July
Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai
Arjie, part of an affluent Tamil family in 1970s Sri Lanka, is seen as "funny" because he prefers dressing up with the girls and reading Little Women to playing cricket with his brothers. We see Arjie develop an understanding of being gay and struggle with society's growing racial tensions, as Sri Lanka dives into Civil War. Selvadurai elegantly entwines the personal and political in this beautiful, quietly devastating novel.
Emily’s Walking Book Club: Sunday 11th July, 11.30-1pm.
Emily’s Zoom Book Club: Monday 12th July, 8-8.30pm.
Tickets go on sale on 1st June.
Buy Funny Boy from Daunt Books here and receive 10% off using the code WBC at checkout.
Looking forward to reading with you!
Stay well,
Emily