W- Biography Reading Group
PRIVATE LIVES MADE PUBLIC: THE PLEASURES AND SURPRISES OF BIOGRAPHY
** Spaces for new members **
If you are interested in personal stories and achievements of people, and the historical and social milieux in which they lived, you might like to join this small friendly group to read and discuss a variety of biographies, autobiographies and memoirs, chosen by members.
With current restrictions, lockdowns, etc the group has both exchanged comments on the chosen book by email, or written and posted (if no email). This has worked very well and the original group has all kept together and enjoyed reading the comments of the rest of the group on the set date.
Garden meetings are beginning, the list of books is below the contact section.
I should be happy to answer any queries by telephone or email.
To send an email to group leader, click on pigeon on right hand side
| Group Leader Name | Janet Fearnehough |
| Contact phone | |
| Venue | currently -Leader's home or garden, Huntington |
| Start Time | 2.00 pm |
| End Time | 4.00 pm |
| Cost | nil |
| Start date | July 2021 |
Biography Reading Group: books chosen for 2021/2022
12TH JULY 2021
'Father and Son: A Study of Two Temperaments' by Edmund Gosse. Gosse, famous nineteenth century literary critic and writer, writes about his lonely, austere childhood in an extremely religious sect, The Plymouth Brethren, and his constant disagreements with his father, Philip, a scientist.
13TH SEPTEMBER 2021
'Oranges are not the Only Fruit' by Jeanette Winterson. Jeanette, adopted by a Lancashire couple, and brought up by her Pentecostal mother as one of God's elect, is destined to be a missionary, but the mother's plans are thwarted by Jeanette. Written in innovatory, humorous novel-like style.
8TH NOVEMBER 2021
'Codebreaking Sisters: Our Secret War' by Patricia Owtram and Jean Owtram. The remarkable story of two intelligent sisters, raised in a country house in Lancashire in the 1920s, who were instrumental in helping crack the notorious Enigma code of WW2.
10TH JANUARY 2022
'Bad Blood' by Lorna Sage. Lorna Sage, literary critic and Professor of English, was born in 1943 and writes an increasingly eloquent, powerful memoir, about living in a dysfunctional family in rural Shropshire, and of an unlikely childhood and adolescence that shaped her in post war Britain.
14TH MARCH 2022
'Munby: A Man of Two World's' by Derek Hudson. Arthur Munby, poet, barrister, social worker, born in York to an affluent family in 1828, shows in these diaries his compassionate insight into the lives of working women and reveals one of the strangest love stories of the nineteenth century.
9TH MAY 2022
'Thomas Hardy: The Time-Torn Man' by Claire Tomalin. Claire Tomalin's biography of Hardy, well-known Victorian novelist, and later poet, paints a striking picture of the life, times and loves in Hardy's often unhappy life; a man in perpetual conflict with himself.