January 2022 - The Call of the Wild by Jack London.

At our January meeting we discussed The Call of the Wild by Jack London. The Call of the Wild is a short novel, published in 1903 and set in Yukon, Canada, during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush. The central character of the novel is a large dog named Buck. The story opens at a ranch in Santa Clara Valley, California, where Buck lives an easy and comfortable life.

Strong dogs to pull sledges were in high demand in the Klondike and Buck is stolen from his home and sold into service as a sled dog in Alaska. He becomes progressively wilder in the harsh environment, where he is forced to fight to survive and dominate other dogs.

By the end of the novel, he sheds the veneer of civilization, and relies on primordial instinct and learned experience to emerge as a leader of a wolf pack in the Yukon wilderness. Jack London spent almost a year in the Yukon as a gold prospector, and his experiences formed much of the material for the book.

A number of members of the group had read the novel or other similar stories by Jack London when we were at school in the 1950s or 60s so it was interesting to read it again as an adult.

We all thought that the novel was an easy read with well-drawn characters and that it drew a vivid picture of the hardship and harsh climate experienced by the gold miners and their dogs. However some of us found the descriptions of the dogs fighting and the cruelty of the dog owners difficult to read.

Some members were not keen on the anthropomorphism of Buck’s inner thoughts and we wondered if the novel was an analogy about the harshness of capitalism and how thin the veneer of civilisation can be?

February 2022 - The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

At our February meeting we discussed The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. It is the first novel by the popular TV Presenter. The novel has been very popular and has sold well over a million copies.

The novel is set in a peaceful up-market retirement village in Kent where four unlikely friends meet once a week to investigate unsolved murders. When a brutal killing happens on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club become involved in investigating their first live case.

As frequently happens with the group our opinions of the book varied enormously. Some members really enjoyed the book and particularly liked Richard Osman’s humorous style and laughed out loud at some of the incidents in the book. Some members had already bought the second novel in the series. However other members didn’t like the book at all and thought that it was too long had too many characters and too many subplots. They thought that the book was only published and sold so well because of the author’s popularity as a television presenter.

As always, an interesting afternoons discussion.

March 2022 - Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte

At our March meeting we discussed Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte. It is Anne Bronte first novel and is based on her experience as a governess. The novel is about Agnes Grey is the daughter of a clergyman. Her mother was born to a rich family that disinherited her when she decided to marry a man with no wealth. She schools her daughters at home, keeping them away from the realities of life. When Agnes' father loses what little savings he had when the man whom he sends to invest his money is killed at sea, Agnes decides to help the family out by becoming a governess.

Agnes discovers that the job of a governess is harder than she expected with difficult students and pampering parents combining to make her job almost impossible. In her first job, Agnes is in charge of children who are unmanageable. In spite of the difficulties Agnes perseveres as had more success with her second job as governess for the Murray’s two daughters.

Agnes eventually finds happiness when she marries Mr Weston, a curate, whom she initially meets whilst working as governess for the Murray’s children.

The group enjoyed the book and found it easy to read with vivid characterisation. We thought that the novel vividly illustrates the lonely and difficult life of young middle-class Victorian women’s whose only opportunity to earn money was to be a governess. As always, an interesting afternoons discussion.

May 2022 - Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi.

At our meeting in May we discussed Homegoing BY Yaa Gyasi. The novel begins with two half-sisters, Effia and Esi, who are born into different villages in eighteenth-century Ghana. Effia is married off to an Englishman, a slaver, and lives in comfort in the palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle. Unbeknownst to Effia, her sister, Esi, is imprisoned beneath her in the castle's dungeons, sold with thousands of others into the Gold Coast's booming slave trade, and shipped off to America, where her children and grandchildren would be raised in slavery.

One thread of Homegoing follows Effia's descendants through centuries of warfare in Ghana, as the Fante and Asante nations wrestle with the slave trade and British colonisation. The other thread follows Esi and her children into America. From the plantations of the South to the Civil War and the Great Migration, from the coal mines of Pratt City, Alabama, to the jazz clubs of twentieth-century Harlem, right up through the present day.

The majority of the group agreed that it was a well written, very ambitious and important book which painted a vivid picture of the slave trade and its repercussions. However parts of the book were difficult to read because of the terrible incidents it described.

However as frequently happens the views of group members varied a lot with one member saying “I’m having a difficult time in getting to grips with “Homegoing”. Picking up the book is more a duty than a pleasure”. Whilst another said “I thought this was a wonderful book, exploring important issues and beautifully written. I thought she handled the dual settings very well and this can be a challenging structure. The content was extremely sad and difficult to deal with but unfortunately this is the kind of life that many people are given”.

June 2022 - V2 by Robert Harris

At our meeting in June we discussed V2 by Robert Harris. The novel begins in November 1944 and is about the German V2 programme. The novel tells the story through two fictional characters. Willi Graf, a German rocket engineer, who was originally part of the team lead by Wernher von Braun that developed the V2. Graf is now supervising the launching of the V2 rockets at London from Occupied Holland. Kay Connolly is a young English WAAF Intelligence officer sent to Belgium to join a team who are trying to locate the V2 launch sites so that the RAF can destroy them.

Robert Harris is a popular author with our group, and we have read a number of his novels. We agreed that he had done a lot of research in order to write the novel and we all found it interesting, informative and an easy and enjoyable read. However a number of members of the group said that in spite of enjoying the novel they didn’t think that it was one of his beat.

July 2022 - Where the Crawdad Sings by Delia Owens

At our meeting in July, we discussed Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. The novel was top of the New York Times bestseller list for two years and has sold over fifteen million copies worldwide. It has recently been made into a Hollywood film and is in cinemas now.

The novel is a coming-of-age and murder mystery. The story follows two timelines that slowly intertwine. The first timeline describes the life and adventures of a young girl named Kya who is abandoned by her family and grows up isolated in the costal marshes of North Carolina. The second timeline follows an investigation into the death of Chase Andrews, a local young man from a fictional coastal town in North Carolina. The two timelines come together when Kya is charged and tried for the murder of Chase.

As frequently happens with our group our opinions of the book varied widely from a member who said, “If I get to read a book this year, more enjoyable than this one, I’ll be a lucky man.” To another who gave up after only reading the first three chapters.

The majority of the group did enjoy the book but most of us also said that we found it impossible to believe that having only attended school for one day Kya could have learned to read and write so easily and became a published author, artist and poet.

{August 2022 - Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro }

Members present were generally not enthusiastic readers of Kaya and the Sun. For some, the story was “empty and brittle”. Others found it difficult to understand Kaya’s role as a friend given that there seemed to be no real relationship between her and Josie. There were other opinions expressed referring to the story as “compulsive reading” or in praise of Ishiguro’s ability as a writer but with the added comment that the story wasn’t worth the author’s skill. One opinion expressed was that given Ishiguro’s professed atheism, Kaya’s dependence on the Sun was an oblique criticism of religion.

Several members expressed concern that what was being illustrated in the book was a worrying sign of how Science Fiction was increasingly threatening to become Science Fact. Witness the growing reliance we now place on robotic assistance in today’s world.

There was however undisguised pleasure some members expressed, particularly admiring how the story was told in the first person by Klara and how the author cleverly structured the story.

Where there was a consensus it was expressed as a sadness felt by members in respect of how Klara, once her function as an AF to Josie was no longer needed, she was left to “die”. Members felt unhappy in this regard.

Harry Franklin

October 2022 - HAMNET by Maggie O'Farrell

At our October meeting we discussed Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell. The novel, which won the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2020, is a fictional account of the life of William Shakespeare and his family at the time of his son Hamnet’s death in 1596 and the writing of the play Hamlet around 1600.

As frequently happens with our group our views of the book varied widely. One member said “I found this book which is titled after William Shakespeare’s only son, very moving..….I liked the way the author used the present tense, giving an immediacy to the narrative. There were times when I almost felt that I was present at the events described…… In all an excellent book, which I will not forget.”

We all agreed that the novel painted a vivid picture of life in 16th century Stratford and London and that the author must have done a lot of research. However a majority of the group felt that the book was too long and unnecessarily verbose. Most members also found the section about Williams Shakespeare’s wife Agnes (Anne) grief after Hamnet’s death disturbing and difficult to read.

An enjoyable and interesting afternoon’s discussion.

November 2022 - Prague Spring by Simon Mawer

At our November meeting we discussed Prague Spring by Simon Mawer. The novel is set in the summer of 1968 and tells the story of two couples who meet in Prague. The first couple are Ellie and James, two students studying at Oxford University, who set off to hitch-hike across Europe with no particular aim of where to go but whist ln southern Germany they decide to go to Prague. The second couple are Sam, a first secretary at the British embassy in Prague, and Lenka, a Czech student activist who meet at a political meeting in Prague.

The novel describes their experience of being in Prague during the time when Alexander Dubcek tried to build ‘socialism with a human face’ and what happened when the Soviet Union invaded in order to stop Dubcek’s experiment.

The group enjoyed the book though with some reservations. Most people felt that the most interesting part of the book was the section describing the atmosphere and events in Prague before and after the invasion rather than the Ellie and James’ romance.

A number of members who have visited Prague commented on how well Mawer described the city. For some other members who had been students in 1968 the novel brought back vivid memories of the period, one member remembered joining a demonstration in London to protest against the Soviet invasion and another remembered hitch hiking on the continent.

December 2022 The Bone Reader by Jacob Ross

At our December meeting we discussed The Bone Readers by Jacob Ross and enjoyed mince pies and chocolates provided by two of our members. The novel is set on the West Indian island of Camaho, based on Ross's native Grenada.

The main character is Michael "Digger" Digson who witnesses a murder and the helps the police identify the culprits. He is then recruited into a team of detective led by the mysterious Chilman, who is obsessed with the disappearance of a young man several years before. Digger is also researching a cold case: his mother's, who was murdered by police when he was a child.

Whilst we all thought that the novel painted a vivid picture of the Caribbean island and captured the atmosphere with vivid dialogue in the local patois. We were more mixed in overall enjoyment of the book.

Whilst some members really enjoyed the book and were keen to read another novel by Jacob Ross others said that they didn’t find the book gripping and wouldn’t want to read another book by the same author.