Crosby Reading Group


This photograph was taken on Crosby Beach which at the moment is hosting an installation of sculptures by Antony (Angel of the North) Gormley, a series of 100 Iron Men, entitled Another Place. We all know the joy of being transported to “another place” through our reading and although we are an all-woman group, we felt that on just this one occasion it would be appropriate to share our delight in having been shortlisted for the Orange/Penguin Reader Group Prize with a man.
 
About the group:
We are a group who began as members of the then National Housewives Register (now National Womens’ Register) but have long functioned as an independent group.  We meet once a month in each others’ homes and have done so without exception for thirty years. Thirty years and 360 books later we have many tales to tell and although there has been some fluidity, many of our members date from all those years ago, so you may conclude that now those avid young women are in the 50-70 age department.  Our professions range widely – we have teachers and nurses, a Counsellor, a Town Planner, a textile Artist and a Musician, a Broadcaster and a Missionary so if we all should end up in the same retirement home we have the skill to make life comfortable and interesting for our friends. Our tolerant and supportive “significant others” are often the lucky recipients of cracking good recommended books when we have finished with them (the books, I mean!)

Name: Crosby Reading Group (Wendy Fairbank)

Where from: Crosby, Liverpool 

Size of group (men/women): 12 (women)

How long you’ve been meeting: 30 years

Where you meet: Each other’s homes

What your reading group means to you:
It introduces us to such a wide variety of books which as individuals we might not choose to read.  Gives us the discipline of reading more intelligently.  We can share or challenge the opinions of others, always “returning to the page” to back our arguments from the author’s intentions. We are shown other lives and experiences than our own and can explore these within a secure environment. We are allowed to change our opinions in the light of discussion. Our reading has become more analytical.

What makes your reading group special:
In 1975 a group of young mothers, members of National Housewives Register (as it was then called), with a mutual interest in books, decided that the books they were reading would become more meaningful if they all read the same book and met to discuss what they had read. The venue was chosen and the hostess agree to provide refreshments, the book was duly read and at the appointed hour eight people turned up at the address they had been given on a slip o paper. Due to a lack of clarity in the printing, the house number, which should have been 23, appeared as something else. One by one, the ladies were turned away by the increasingly irate inhabitant of the wrong house. As soon as the mistake became clear the meeting began at number 23, but by this time the other householder was so angry that he called out the fire brigade to number 23. This was the inauspicious start to a Reading Group which would endure for the next thirty years. Throughout that time the membership has been fluid but a core of the original team still remains to tell the Tale of the Fire Appliance.

There are no rules, but certain conventions. At first, it was the responsibility of the Hostess to choose the book and led the meeting, but after a disastrous choice of book early on, books became chosen democratically. Sometimes, not everyone has read the book. Nevertheless, the discussion takes place, and on many occasions members leave the meetings fired up, determined to read it soon.

One of the features of Crosby Reading Group os that it is a safe and compassionate environment for talking about illnesses, family crises, bereavements and failures as well as the celebration of achievements, family progress and grandchildren. Individuals have found strength to move forward in their own lives and provided role models for the less confident. And if you want a reliable plumber, we’ll knowone! However, the discussion is wide-ranging and sometimes so far beyond the covers of the book that we have agreed to stop general conversation around 8.30pm.
Not wishing to become competitive in the catering department, we only provide soft drinks with biscuits, thus leaving more time for discussion.

Over the years, we have always welcomed in new members, but we keep to twelve sp that the houses don’t overflow or discussions become too unwieldy. Many of us are now officially pensioners and as we march forward into the future with our friends, we know we will be supported by a group of people who share our delight in literature old and new and who have skills which wouldn’t go amiss should we all end up in the same retirement home. We can educate, nurse, counsel, play the piano, broadcast, cook, speak several languages, run a library and if all else fails, we have a missionary! Crosby Reading Group has survived because it is very special.