Dear walking book clubbers,
I’m excited to announce our picks for the start of next year: three books and walks to inspire and sustain us during these challenging Covid times.
A reminder that these emails will always remain free to those who need them to be, but if you are able to support Emily’s Walking Book Club by paying £15/year (or £50/year to get a personal reading consulation with me too), then please do.
Sunday 31st January 2021
The World That Was Ours by Hilda Bernstein
This classic South African memoir chronicles the run up to the 1964 Rivonia Trial, when the author's husband, Rusty, was acquitted but others - incuding Nelson Mandela - received life sentences. A gripping, inspiring, personal and political account of fighting Apartheid.
This is a meaty and very readable book that I thought would be especially fitting for this tough winter, when many of us will be feeling isolated and fed up with life so limited by Covid measures. It’s a good reminder of ordinary people’s incredible acts of bravery, of the importance of standing up for justice, solidarity between people, and it also points out that people have endured much harder times than this.
You can buy your book from Daunt Books here (or in the shop) and get 10% off by using the code WBC at checkout.
Tickets for the walk will go on sale on 1st December.
Sunday 28th February 2021
So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell
In this evocative classic of American literature, the narrator - now an old man - looks back to his childhood, when a man was murdered on his farm in Illinois, and the narrator's friendship with the murderer's son comes to an abrupt end. Written in delicate, spare prose, this is a piercing testament of guilt and regret.
Buy the book from Daunt Books and get 10% off using the code WBC at checkout.
Tickets go on sale on 1st January.
Sunday 28th March 2021
The Pumpkin Eater by Penelope Mortimer
In this loosely autobiographical and very intense novel of the 1960s, the narrator - mother to countless young children, wife to a rich, unfaithful husband (her fourth) - suffers a nervous breakdown. In scalpel-sharp prose, with deadpan wit, Mortimer shows us the pain of a woman who is seen to have it all, but whose life, in fact, feels empty.
Buy the book from Daunt Books and get 10% off using the code WBC at checkout.
Tickets go on sale on 1st February.
All walks take place on Hampstead Heath, setting off from outside Daunt Books, 51 South End Road, NW3 at 11.30 and returning there for 1pm.
Tickets for the walks go on sale on the 1st of the preceding month, and book out fast - numbers are limited to 20 to aid social distancing.
If you are unable to make the walks, please do read along and email me your thoughts - I’ll include them in the short monthly webcasts in which I summarise our discussion of the book.
You can see webcasts about our previous books on YouTube here.
Looking forward to seeing some of you to discuss Alan Bennett on December 13th. I hope you’re enjoying this very funny, charming, spirit-lifting novella - do drop me a line with your thoughts!
Happy reading, and thanks again for your support,
Emily