LMA Book Group
About LMA Book Group
The LMA Book Group meets monthly to explore a range of London writing, with a remit covering fiction and non-fiction for all periods in London's history.
For each session, a display of original archive material is available to stimulate discussion. All are welcome to attend - though if you haven't read the book there may well be spoilers!
The LMA Book Group remains a virtual discussion group and we meet monthly online.
Upcoming Reads for 2024:
March - 'Down and Out in Paris and London' by George Orwell
Wednesday 13 March | 6pm
Orwell memorably describes his own experience working in restaurant kitchens in Paris and living in hostels in and around London as a way of exploring poverty in the two capitals. Now regarded as a classic piece of journalism, as well as a foundational text in the development of Orwell the novelist, critics still debate how much this work can be regarded as reportage or fiction.
April - 'A London Child of the 1870s' by Molly Hughes
Wednesday 10 April | 6pm
Written in 1934, this memoir describes everyday life in Islington as the youngest child in a large middle-class family in a semi-detached house. It is a snapshot of a type of life in a certain time. Victorian children were often seen but not heard, and Hughes offers us a rich picture of everyday life.
May - 'The Peckham Experiment' by Guy Ware
Wednesday 8 May | 6pm
Guy Ware's recent novel tracks the twentieth century in London from the 1930s onwards through the fragmentary memories of the 85 year-old Charlie, whose identical twin brother JJ has recently died. Sons of a working-class Communist family, growing up in the radical Peckham Experiment and orphaned by the Blitz, the twins emerge from the war keen to build the New Jerusalem.
June - 'Fingersmith' by Sarah Waters
Wednesday 12 June | 6pm
Sue Trinder, orphaned at birth, grows up among petty thieves – fingersmiths – under the rough but loving care of Mrs Sucksby and her 'family'. But from the moment she draws breath, Sue's fate is linked to that of another orphan growing up in a gloomy mansion not too many miles away. An atmospheric thriller that provides a contemporary slant on the Victorian sensation novel.
To book please visit LMA’s Eventbrite page.