Brighton Beach Group

We first met in a Brighton bookshop two years ago. Six of us had won a writing competition to choose a shortlist of five from ten books nominated for a national newspaper’s First Book Award. A quick glance at the group revealed a disparate assortment of people.

As we introduced ourselves it became evident that our differences were more than superficial. The blue-haired skater boy earned a living from computer programming but also as a dancer and pirate radio DJ. The immaculately groomed young woman transpired to be a spiritual healer the tweed-skirted lady a lawyer. We also numbered a teacher, a midwife and a model. But what was extraordinary was that we had each chosen to work part-time in order to pursue our real passion: reading. This was something of a revelation and a relief to hear we weren’t alone in not being content to read for 10 minutes before nodding off to sleep exhausted. We wanted two afternoons to indulge ourselves. The idea of buying a season ticket for deck-chair rentals on Brighton’s pebble beach quickly caught on; the deck chair can be angled perfectly for hours of comfortable reading. And that summer we needed a comfortable spot as we were reading two or three books a week for the award.

The meetings in the bookshop became increasingly lively and at closing time we still had so much to say we would continue our discussion in the pub. Having found like-minded souls, at the end of the judging period we started meeting in each other’s houses once a month. Recently two new members have brought a new perspective to the group. By day they work as a psychotherapist and a council worker, by night they are readers.

For a small group of people we are surprisingly wide-ranging culturally and ethnically. Half of the group were born and bred in the north of England, one in Australia, the others are southerners. Our roots are Jewish, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, and Romany Gypsy. This diversity leads to original book choices and our shared reading experience prompts some fascinating anecdotes. For one member, Myla Goldberg’s Bee Season evoked strong memories of the cloying atmosphere of her Jewish family home and over-ambitious father. We had only recently met at this point and in any other social situation we would be making polite small talk but the book had touched a raw nerve.

We all like a good story but the books we appreciate most are the ones which delve deep into the human psyche and show us what it is to be human. Rachel Seiffert’s examination of victims of the holocaust in The Dark Room provoked an interesting debate. Our book choices include poetry, biography, and non-fiction as well as fiction for children and adults.

Brighton is a good place for readers; we have many varied bookshops. Our local Penguin bookseller will track down out-of-stock books and have them waiting for us the next day. The specialist bookshops can introduce us to new genres. We each spend many happy hours browsing through second-hand bookshops, emerging with long-forgotten treasures. The big bookshops host talks by authors, poetry evenings, quizzes and book-signings.

Then there is the Brighton Festival. This year we were interested to hear the intellectual maverick Sven Lindquist talk about his varied literary career, along with Geoff Dyer who sent some of us to sleep. Lively debate ensued afterwards in the pub. Some of us brought our children to watch the beguiling Michael Rosen perform his poetry, others stayed to hear him talk to an adult audience about the tragic death of his son. Throughout the festival we meet often to review events. We are lucky enough to be close to the Lewes Literary Festival and also spend enchanted evenings watching authors read and discuss their work at Charleston Farmhouse.

We take it in turns to choose the books. This system works well for us as there is no time wasted trying to reach a consensus within the group. We come prepared to promote our chosen book and the choice is often an original one which nobody has heard of. We appreciate discovering other people’s ideas as to what constitutes a good read. Since we were presented with the graphic novel Jimmy Corrigan by Chris Ware to read for the First Book Award we have endeavoured to be open minded. At first a few of us screwed our noses up at having to read a cartoon book but the beautiful drawings and poignant text won our hearts over. A new genre was opened up to us and we went on to read more graphic novels, starting with Art Speigelman’s Maus. Gender perspectives play a role in our discussions. This was most obvious when one of the men in our group choice Sven Lindquist’s A History of Bombing. This was a book which scared some of us just by it’s title but we all appreciated the intricate and innovative form, as well as the beautiful writing and depth of the author’s knowledge.

Reading is by its very nature solitary, it can also be lonely when a book has inspired the reader with great thoughts and emotions but there is nobody to share them with. How wonderful then to have a group of friends to agree, disagree, commiserate and argue passionately with. There is always a lot of laughter at our meetings. We appreciate the discipline of having a forum so that we have to form articulate opinions about what we have read. In group discussions our ideas form and evolve. Sometimes our minds are completely changed. When discussing The Testament of Yves Gundron by Emily Barton we were persuaded of the merits of this strange, imaginative book as we explored the intricacies of the fictional world. We all left the meeting convinced of it’s literary worth. The one member who had been absent from that meeting still dismissed the book as being too slight.

Membership of the book group has introduced us to people of different culture, background, lifestyle, age and gender who we would not ordinarily have even met, let alone discussed the burning issue of life with. This year we toasted our anniversary with champagne. Being part of a lively book group is a real celebration of the life we have each chosen to live, the life of a reader.

Blindness, Jose Saramago
Greetings from our Friends in Brazil, Paul Durcan
Kidnapped, PL Stevenson
A High Wind in Jamaica, Richard Hughes
Music and Silence, Rose Tremain
Coram Boy, Jamila Garin