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A London reading group that meets in pubs up and down the Piccadilly line has been named one of the top book clubs in the country.
Two years after the first meeting in Smithy's Wine Bar in King's Cross, the North London Reading Group is in contention for the 2009 Penguin Orange Readers' Group Prize. It asks
groups to show how they make reading “social”.
The group was founded by Paul Drinkwater, a public servant, and his girlfriend, Dawn Barnes, both 32, when they moved to London in 2007. They set up a web page asking if anyone wanted to join and were inundated with enquiries.
The original group has spawned four satellite clubs who all get together for joint events such as literary walks and parties. Mr Drinkwater, an English and history graduate who lives in Southgate, said: “People who study English at university are used to talking and chatting about books in a group. Then they go out to work and perhaps carry on reading privately but yearn to discuss it. I was really surprised by the response to the website and it's just grown and grown.”
Miss Barnes, a public relations executive, added: “You just don't realise there are so many people interested in reading. When I was at school I used to lie to my friends that I was grounded so I could read books and my parents used to say I would never make friends. “But I met my other half through reading and have got to know a lot of people in London.” Their rivals are a group at Ashworth Hospital, Liverpool, for patients with severe mental health problems, and another in a high security psychiatric hospital in Liverpool. The fourth contender was set up online by Jen Campbell, an Edinburgh University graduate, and now has more than 5,000 members.
The winner will be announced on 27 May. It will receive £1,000 and a pair of tickets to the Orange Prize for Fiction ceremony on 3 June.
An 11-year-old girl from Haringey was highly commended by judges for her online group called Book Chat. Chloe Bingham, a pupil at Mount Carmel RC Technology College for Girls in Archway, acknowledged she was officially too young to enter but wanted to highlight young people doing something positive with their lives.
“Lots of my friends like reading books like me. We just decided to talk together and then I decided to start on Facebook and it just went from there,” she said. She has also set up an online literary quiz.
Reader views (1)
My experience (of the Met Line) is that one can comfortably read "War and Piece" from beginning to end on a single journey!
- Jb, London, 21/05/2009 13:59
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