The Book Club

Are you an avid reader? Or perhaps new to the village. Did you know we have a flourishing Book Club?

The book club started about 15 years ago with just 3 members and our first novel was ‘the Girl With a Pearl Earring’. Since then we have grown into a small but enthusiastic group of committed readers. We meet monthly in different members houses for book discussion and a bit of gossip over a glass of wine. Books are chosen democratically: someone suggests a book which we may vote on. We aim to read widely — modern literary books, some classics and, occasionally, a thriller or a biography. We want to enjoy our reading but sometimes to challenge ourselves and read something we may otherwise not have thought of.To find out more about the Village Book Club contact Heather.
Activity Address Rose Cottage and various venues
Name of Contact Heather Mines
Contact Address Rose Cottage, Hall Lane, Hadlow Down, TN22 4HJ
Telephone 07974 204231
Email Address heathermines2@hotmail.com

Book Club Review – September

‘Jewish is a way of seeing the world, a strong consistent background theme.’

Our book this month is Going Home by Tom Lamont 2024. It is set in the Jewish community in Enfield and centres on Joel, an articulate two-year-old whose mother dies leaving him in the care of her friend Teo. It is about the four adults who take on responsibility for him in their own way. Teo who has moved away from the community to a job in the police force and a flat in Aldgate is the responsible one who takes on the grieving youngster and  learns to care for him and love him. Then there is Ben, the feckless rich boy, the opposite of Teo but also his best friend, and Vic, Teo’s father, dying of a degenerative condition and determined that Joel will not grow up in the care of the Social Services as he once did. Finally, Sybil, the only woman of the four and a progressive rabbi trying in vain to reform the intransigent members of her synagogue. All of them interact with Joel in their own way and find their lives challenged and enriched by him Continue reading “Book Club Review – September”

Hadlow Down Book Club August Review

 

A kid is a terrible thing to be, in charge of nothing’ 

Recently we read the childhood of David Copperfield and then compared it to Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver’s novel inspired by her hero Dickens but set in the rust belt of Appalachia and exploring contemporary issues. It was a co-recipient of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for fiction and winner of the 2023 Women’s Prize for Fiction. Like Dckens, she lays bare and makes an impassioned criticism of social injustice, cruelty and incompetence of those who should be helping children,  Continue reading “Hadlow Down Book Club August Review”

July Hadlow Down Book Club Review

‘English humour turns on transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary’ , James Thurber 

Listening to the World Service in the small hours of an insomniac night, I suddenly jolted wide awake as I heard the voice of the author of one of our favourite Book Club reads – Clare Chambers talking about Small Pleasures. She was saying that she extensively read fifties novels in order to capture the dialogue and atmosphere of the time. Her favourite was Excellent Women (1952) by Barbara Pym, so we decided to read it ourselves.   Continue reading “July Hadlow Down Book Club Review”

Hadlow Down Book Club Review

The House of Doors (2023),

A story like a bird of the mountains can carry a name beyond  the clouds, beyond even time itself’.

Some years ago the Book Club read The Garden of Evening Mist (2021) by Tan Twan Eng. It was that rare thing – a book that we all loved both for the lyrical language and the narrative that unfolds. So it was with enthusiasm that we chose The House of Doors (2023), long listed for the Booker Prize. Continue reading “Hadlow Down Book Club Review”

Village Article Writers

The Village Magazine is asking for volunteers who would be prepared to write and submit articles on a regular basis on any subject that could be of interest to parishioners.

As well as hoping for input of a variety of village life subjects from all residents the Mag is particularly interested in hearing from youngsters who may be doing Med
ia Studies at college. As well as being recognised for contributing something to your community it’s a great opportunity to add something to your CV!
Please contact Peter at smyth594@gmail.com if interested.

Hadlow Down Book Club Review – December.

We have been reading ‘Small Things Like These’ by Claire Keegan (2021), a novella shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize. It is set in a small Irish town in the run-up to Christmas 1985, and is about the moral dilemma of Bill Furlong, a coal merchant. He is married with five daughters who are doing well and give him much joy and pride. He is the illegitimate son of a 16 year- old housemaid who was protected by her well-to-do Protestant employer who also acted as a patron to Bill. He is aware of his good fortune and tries to emulate her kindness to him by acts of kindness to others. Continue reading “Hadlow Down Book Club Review – December.”

Hadlow Down Book Club Review – November 2023

Black Butterflies Priscilla Morris 2023

‘Have you ever heard of such a thing? A human chain to rescue books, a moment of coming together, of resistance.’

Our book this month has particular poignancy in view of what is happening in the world right now. Priscilla Morris’s novel, shortlisted for the Women’s Prize tells the story of the siege of Sarajevo, based on real-life incidents and experiences from her own family.
Zora Kokovic is an artist and Professor of Art at the University of Sarajevo where she lives with her husband Franjo and cares for her 83-year-old mother. As unrest grows, Franjo and her mother leave to stay with her daughter who lives in England, but Zora decides to stay in her beloved city to finish her painting and join them later. She believes that things will soon settle down and that the tanks gathering in the mountains are for their protection.
Despite difficulties, Zora begins to enjoy her solitude and focus on her recent painting.  But soon things worsen, as conflict turns into full scale war. Buildings are shelled, people lie dead in the streets; food, water and electricity become scarce and then vanish. Zora is reduced to catching pigeons on her windowsill and cooking them. Continue reading “Hadlow Down Book Club Review – November 2023”

SUMMER BOOK CLUB  REVIEW

In August the Book Club always takes a break and members read their own choice of book and bring back recommendations to the group. We certainly had a diverse and interesting selection and I for one can’t wait to start reading some of them.

To start with some vintage World War novels, ‘Death of a Hero’ (1929) was written by Richard Aldington and based on his own first-hand experience of World War 1. It is sometimes considered the greatest of all novels about that War and makes a scalding critique of those pre-war voices that helped to make that global catastrophe inevitable. It is that very anger that made this a fascinating read. Nigel Balchin was a psychologist, a writer and deputy scientific adviser to the Army Council. Like Aldington he writes from first-hand knowledge in ‘Darkness Falls from the Air’ (1942) a vivid account of living through the blitz and ‘Small Back Room’ (1943) a story of the backroom boys. Of their time, they are readable, informative and vivid. Continue reading “SUMMER BOOK CLUB  REVIEW”

Hadlow Down Book Club Review – August ’23

Life doesn’t have a narrator – it’s full of lies and half-truths – so we never know anything for sure, not really. I like that” The Temptation of Forgiveness Donna Leon (2018).

We decided to read something lighter this month, and chose Trace Elements (2020), by Donna Leon. No doubt some of you will be familiar with her long-running series, set in Venice and featuring the Commissario (Detective Superintendent) Guido Brunetti, his wife Paola and his team in the Questura (police headquarters). Continue reading “Hadlow Down Book Club Review – August ’23”

Hadlow Down Book Club Review – July

This month we have been reading The Dance Tree by Kiran Millwood Hargrave (2022). Recommended by BBC2’s ‘Between the Covers’, we found it to somewhat of a ‘Marmite’ book.
It is set during the real-life dancing mania of 1518 in Strasbourg when hundreds of women joined in a dance, without stopping despite hunger and bleeding feet,  part of a mania that occurred in Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries. It is narrated through the eyes of Lisbet, a farmer’s wife heavily with her thirteenth child, having lost the previous twelve. The whole region is suffering from famine due to the drought and the blistering hot summer. It is also suffering from the oppression of a tyrannical Authority controlled by a corrupt and powerful Church. Lisbet is in a loveless marriage and desperate to bear this baby successfully. She is a lonely figure  surrounded by mysteries – what sin was her sister-in-law Agnethe guilty of that she was sent away to a monastery for seven years and has now returned emaciated and with a scarred shaven head? Why is Ida, Lisbet’s best friend behaving so oddly?  Why is Sophe  her mother-in-law so grim? Continue reading “Hadlow Down Book Club Review – July”