‘Go Set a Watchman’ by Harper Lee was our book of choice for April. Most group members had read ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, Lee’s 1961 Pulitzer Prize winning classic and, despite the fact that ‘Go Set a Watchman’ wasn’t published until 2015, it was the first of the two books to be written. Originally promoted as … Read more

‘The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands’ by Sarah Brooks takes the reader back to 1899 on board the Great Trans-Siberian Express on its journey from Beijing to Moscow, traversing the menacing yet intriguing Wastelands. We are given the layout of the great luxury train in diagrammatic form, an effective tool helping to immerse the … Read more

In February the Bookworms group moved to a new venue at ‘Homestart South Leicestershire’ where we immediately felt at home. Most people associate the author Hilary Mantel with her historical Wolf Hall trilogy, but this month one of her lesser known, earlier novels, ‘An Experiment in Love’, was our chosen read. The story centres around … Read more

To start the year off, the group read ‘All the Broken Places’ by John Boyne, a prolific Irish author whose novels are published in 60 languages, making him the most globally translated Irish writer of all time. He is probably best known for his 2006 novel ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ and it’s from … Read more

To round off the year, our chosen author was Graham Greene whose works span a large part of the 20th century. He is described as a Catholic novelist and this particular religion features as a theme in much of his writing. Greene was also interested in the workings and intrigues of international politics and espionage, … Read more

 E. M. Forster’s first novel,  ‘Where Angels Fear to Tread’, was our November book choice. It was published in 1905 following the author’s travels in Europe when he was only 26 years old and the title comes from a line in Alexander Pope’s poem, An Essay on Criticism – “For fools rush in where angels … Read more

 The Bookworms group has been running since 2017 and continues to thrive. We enjoy reading all sorts of literature, mainly fiction, and are open to trying out both contemporary and classic authors from all over the world. This year we’ve read books from American, Scottish, Irish, English, Australian and Japanese authors. Sometimes we have very … Read more

‘The Changeling’ by Robin Jenkins is definitely a story of its time, in this case the 1950s.  Set initially in Glasgow, then the popular seaside area known as the ‘Glasgow Riviera’, it features Charlie Forbes, a naive, well-meaning teacher who invites Tom Curdie, one of his pupils, to join him and his family on their … Read more

You may remember the crop circles of the 1980s which gained significant attention, particularly in Southern England, as elaborate patterns appeared overnight in fields of crops. This phenomenon captivated the public and sparked widespread speculation about their origin, with some attributing them to UFOs or other paranormal forces. While many were later revealed to be … Read more

It’s always exciting to discover a new author and when ‘The Briar Club’ by Kate Quinn was suggested, none of us were familiar with her work.  As the book begins with a shocking murder, the implication is that it follows the usual murder mystery format. However, it’s not long before the reader gets caught up … Read more