Setting up a Book Club or Book Group

You may already belong to a book club but, either way, you may fancy setting one up and running it yourself. It is great to chat with others about a book that you have all read. The shared experience can give an extra reason and purpose to reading a book. Also, most would agree that it sometimes leads to picking up and enjoying a book that you might not have previously considered. It's easy to slip into a rut where we are drawn to a particular genre and can be refreshing to try something different.

It's easier if the club is formed from people you already know - friends, perhaps colleagues at work, parents of children who attend the same school as yours, whom you see now and then, or, indeed your near neighbours some of whom you may not know. The last idea works particularly well as is very convenient to arrange meetings with people within walking distance or a short drive away. If your road has a WhatsApp group then that makes life easier!

Firstly you need to make contact with potential members or maybe put up a poster in your local library, whatever works for you to reach out.  I actually popped a note in the letter boxes of everyone in our road to make sure nobody was missed, which invited them and gave my contact details. Once you have enough people to kick start the group, you might want to set up a WhatsApp group and agree on a few things: what time of day would be best - daytime may rule out those working but would suit retired people, for example, so consider the demographics! Then how often - every other month might be doable but depends on how voracious these readers and booklovers are, how busy their lives and whether they already belong to another book club. Attendance is probably better if you fix it for a certain date each month, eg third Wednesday, so it can be slotted into diaries well ahead. 

Once you have your gang you will need to agree on how you select your books up for discussion. One good way is for everyone to put forward a couple of books they would like to recommend which they may or may not have read. This would form your 'Longlist' from which members can vote democratically to whittle the list down to, say, six a year. It is helpful to do this once a year so the books on the shortlist can be bought or borrowed in good time. Or, you could run things more casually and just stumble along from one meeting to the next and take turns to choose the next one! I prefer the first option as you may have gathered! But do whatever floats your boat.

If you decide to take up the challenge, do let me and others know how you get on in the Comments. I would love to hear about it.

Learning to Type in the 1960s!!

I am a terrible hoarder of books and came across a book today entitled GREGG TYPING from the late Sixties. It is what you might call a 'text book' full of exercises for pupils learning to touch type and I could hardly believe my eyes. It seems like something from the dark ages now, yet this was the era in which Secrets in Appley Green is set.

In the example shown below, no doubt written by a man for his female secretary (just saying) the instructions are 'Using quarto paper and inserting a suitable date, type the following letter ready for signature. Take one carbon copy. Address a slip of paper, commercial envelope size, as the envelope. Production target - 25 minutes.' 

There are terms here that would be unfamiliar to many younger people. Even 'envelope' is something now rarely used what with emails and so on. 'Carbon copy' is the origin of  'cc' when you copy someone into an email, of course. The term 'bcc' now used would make no sense at all in those days as taking a carbon copy involved placing an extra sheet of paper in the typewriter and sandwiched between the two sheets of paper would be a sheet of thin, waxy, inky carbon paper. 

If you made so much as one mistake - just a single character - not only would the top sheet of paper have to be corrected with white liquid commonly known as Tipp-Ex, but also the second sheet of paper would have to be changed. It was such a faff that it taught us to avoid making errors! The concentration was intense.

So next time you delete so much as a letter or number, never mind an entire paragraph or page, think of this and be very grateful. No such thing as photocopiers or mobile phones with cameras so you could make a copy in seconds. Oh no, you just had to start all over again. And some women or girls, never a boy or man I would say, would have the unenviable job as Copy Typist! Imagine that.

Another Nostalgic Visit to Tetbury - and more!

I took a memory lane trip to Tetbury, Gloucestershire in 2017, following up on a visit I made a few years before. I was born and raised in this place which is not only beautiful, but also I believe, has a strong sense of community, due its size. It is a small town, not too big, not too small and for sure in no small way inspired me to create the fictitious village Appley Green.

I enjoyed wandering its streets, up and down hills, even under a bridge, seeing again buildings that bring back so many memories: St Mary's Church where my now husband and I were married in 1970; the school, where my father was a teacher and I a pupil and my sister before me, and is now a doctors' surgery but apparently destined for another life and of course the house where I lived for 17 years as a child and teenager. Many shops are completely transformed into businesses that offer antiques and things one might want but not need. There is Highgrove shop, with King Charles' private residence just a couple of miles from Tetbury on the Bath Road.

Yesterday I did something new, however. I took a guided tour of Chavenage House which is of significant historical importance. As I walked around I kept thinking 'Wow, I never knew that! Why have I never done this before?' Chavenage Lane leads to Chavenage House and my old home is just a stone's throw away from that country road. It's often the way that we take for granted things that are on our doorstep.

Chavenage House has been used for many TV productions, most recently Poldark and Rivals with Aidan Turner being an actor in both! Other films include Children of the New Forest, Wolf Hall, Poirot and Lark Rise to Candleford to name but a few.

I highly recommend if you have the chance to do it.

https://miriamwakerly.blogspot.com/2017/08/going-back-to-tetbury.html     Link to my previous visit in 2017

I'm Back!!

It's been a while - it was in March 2019 when I posted my last blog. Even more significantly it's been 18 years since I wrote and published my first novel Gypsies Stop tHere. So what's going on? you may ask.

I thought it was high time I reached out to a whole new bunch of readers and made Gypsies Stop tHere easily available to them. It is, I am delighted to announce, once more 'in stock' and ready for you to buy on Amazon. Just click on its book cover.

Much has happened in so many intervening years. Brexit, Covid, Putin, climate change, for me five grandchildren, and cancer in 2014 which put me out of action for a complete year and really set back my writing and publishing endeavours. However, I did manage to finish writing and publishing a fourth novel, Secrets in Appley Green. But what of the Gypsy and Travelling community? It's hard to know but certainly they are still in the news with age-old problems.

Gypsies and Travellers traditionally travel to make a living but for many years there has been a dearth of places for them to legally live, work or just stop en route. Meanwhile like mainstream society, their population has grown whilst the sites have not. Hence a dilemma.. 

I strove to gain a proper understanding and see both sides, all of which is woven into the story of  Gypsies Stop tHere together with a factual portrayal of their history and culture. It does not shy away from contemporary issues that can cause righteous indignation around the UK. When I used to do book signings and give talks I knew I had entered an arena of controversial debate.

So if you want to get some insights into all of this by reading an easy to read story go ahead. The village setting seems to be much loved by readers and of course the characters. 

Happy reading!