Reading Group

Would you like a change from reading groups that read mostly modern fiction?

We invite you to join our group specialising in 19th century English literature. Read for the first time, or rediscover in the company of other enthusiasts, the classics that have stood the test of time: the Brontës of course, and also Jane Austen, Hardy, Dickens, George Eliot and many other well-known and lesser-known writers of the period. We meet every six weeks or so for a lively discussion of one of the books on our reading list.

Books on our list for 2024-2025:

Charles Dickens: David Copperfield
Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice
Elizabeth Gaskell: Cranford
Charlotte Brontë: Villette
Margaret Oliphant: Miss Marjoribanks
Henry James: Daisy Miller
Thomas Hardy: Tess of the d’Urbervilles

For more information, contact Jones Hayden

Meeting Irish author Michael O’Dowd
Several years ago, I reviewed Irish author Michael O’Dowd’s book on Charlotte Brontë’s honeymoon in Ireland: Charlotte Brontë – An Irish Odyssey. On our trip to Ireland this summer, we managed to meet Michael and had a fascinating discussion about Charlotte and other Brontë-related topics – despite some unpleasant weather. After some years of not going […]
JH
Impromptu Brontë walk with poet Emma Conally-Barklem
I had a very impromptu Brontë walk on Saturday with the poet Emma Conally-Barklem. She had come all the way from Yorkshire to Brussels for the weekend with her partner to see Pink! on her Summer Carnival Tour in the King Baudouin stadium and to walk in the footsteps of Charlotte Brontë. In one weekend, she […]
JH
'Oblivion: The Lost Diaries of Branwell Brontë'
We were delighted to welcome U.S. professor and novelist Dean de la Motte, who joined us on Saturday 15 June for our annual summer lunch and afterwards gave a talk on his novel Oblivion: The Lost Diaries of Branwell Brontë. The event, arranged to fit in with Dean’s annual summer stay in France, was well-attended and […]
JH