Wellington City Book Club

For our October book, we are reading “The Go-Between” by L.P. Hartley.

This classic of English literature is L.P. Hartley's moving exploration of a young boy's loss of innocence. It starts with the memorable phrase;
'The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there'

When one long, hot summer, young Leo is staying with a school-friend at Brandham Hall, he begins to act as a messenger between Ted, the farmer, and Marian, the beautiful young woman up at the hall. He becomes drawn deeper and deeper into their dangerous game of deceit and desire, until his role brings him to a shocking and premature revelation. The haunting story of a young boy's awakening into the secrets of the adult world, The Go-Between is also an unforgettable evocation of the boundaries of Edwardian society.

The book was made into a film in 1971 starring Julie Christie and Alan Bates, directed by Joseph Losey. It was remade as a television series in 2015 with Jim Broadbent, Vanessa Redgrave and Lesley Manville.

Leslie Poles Hartley (1895-1972) was born in Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire, and educated at Harrow and Balliol College, Oxford. For more than thirty years from 1923 he was an indefatigable fiction reviewer for periodicals including the Spectator and Saturday Review. His first book, Night Fears (1924) was a collection of short stories; but it was not until the publication of Eustace and Hilda (1947), which won the James Tait Black prize, that Hartley gained widespread recognition as an author. His other novels include The Go-Between (1953) and The Hireling (1957), the film version of which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

If you are coming to the Meet Up, we welcome recommendations for our next book. Come prepared to describe your choice. We like books of short to medium length that will not be too much of a challenge to read in the month or so allotted!

We also welcome anyone who wants to bring books along that they have finished with and are happy to pass on to other readers. However if there is no uptake on any of your books, please be prepared to take them home again as we have no storage facilities.

It is REALLY IMPORTANT that you please RSVP and CANCEL if your plans change as we have to manage the space we have booked at the venue. If RSVPs are closed, it means we have reached maximum numbers.

For our November book, we are reading “The Animals in That Country” by Laura Jean McKay.

Hard-drinking, foul-mouthed, and allergic to bullshit, Jean is not your usual grandma. She’s never been good at getting on with other humans, apart from her beloved granddaughter, Kimberly. Instead, she surrounds herself with animals, working as a guide in an outback wildlife park. And although Jean talks to all her charges, she has a particular soft spot for a young dingo called Sue.

As disturbing news arrives of a pandemic sweeping the country, Jean realises this is no ordinary ‘flu: its chief symptom is that its victims begin to understand the language of animals — first mammals, then birds and insects, too. As the ‘flu progresses, the unstoppable voices become overwhelming, and many people begin to lose their minds, including Jean’s infected son, Lee. When he takes off with Kimberly, heading south, Jean feels the pull to follow her kin.

Setting off on their trail, with Sue the dingo riding shotgun, they find themselves in a stark, strange world in which the animal apocalypse has only further isolated people from other species. Bold, exhilarating, and wholly original, The Animals in That Country asks what would happen if - for better or worse - we finally understood what animals were saying.

We have decided to create a book exchange at our Meet Ups. Members are welcome to bring along any book that they have finished with and would like to pass on. However please be prepared to take any books home with you that don't get adopted as we have no storage facilities! But on the plus side, you might pick up that book you have been meaning to read...

If you are coming to the Meet Up, we welcome recommendations for our next book. Come prepared to describe your choice. We like books of short to medium length that will not be too much of a challenge to read in the month or so allotted!

It is important that you please RSVP and cancel if your plans change. If RSVPs are closed, it means we have reached maximum numbers.