As I had expected we had a lovely evening together, my book club chums and I. Our host was S who lives in a beautiful flat – she has such a good eye for decor and I always admire how tidy and yet comfortable and interesting her home is. In fact, whoever we visit, P in her tasteful house – I guess it must be about 120 years old, if not more, or J in her home with large elegant rooms and a lovely garden with a fish pond (now depleted thanks to herons) or L in her interesting place on the seafront with glorious views down the coast to Devon and across the channel to Wales, we always feel relaxed and at home !
Back to our get together – wine was poured, tea was made, and a delicious supper was laid for us. As we sat round the table we began to chat about the book we had been reading, ‘Pompeii’ by Robert Harris (not Richard Harris as I keep saying and writing, he was a very different person, an actor and singer!) Supper consumed, we retired to comfortable chairs and settee with more wine and more tea, and continued our lively discussion – and went on too talk about the actual city of Pompeii which some of us had visited, and others of us desperately want to.
Then came the tricky part, thinking of something to read for next time. Someone had the great idea of choosing a play and after much chat and reminiscences of other plays we had seen or viewed, we decided on a play by Alan Bennett, ‘Talking Heads’. In fact, it is a series of monologues, so I’m not sure how we are going to do this – will we read at home then discuss when we’re together, or will we read a monologue or part of one to each other? Maybe I wasn’t listening properly when it was decided, maybe I was too busy enjoying my glass of wine, or maybe it wasn’t decided!
‘Talking Heads” is a 1988 TV series of dramatic monologues written for BBC television by British playwright Alan Bennett. The first series was broadcast in 1988, and later adapted for radio, a second series was broadcast in 1998. In each series there are six monologues, and although the plays deal with a variety of subjects, there are recurring themes, such as death, illness, guilt and isolation. Most of the plays suggest they are set in Leeds, although not, as Bennett stresses, the “real” Leeds, but one which exists in his imagination.’
Wikipedia – thank you!
We have a very random way of choosing the next ‘read’, generally we bring ideas and thoughts, or sometimes some of us have heard something on the radio. Sometimes we seem to have fallen into a pattern of reading things from a particular genre and so deliberately try to think of something different. I had an idea of something I’m reading at the moment which is very different and very well written, ‘Alibi’ by Joseph Kanon set in Venice immediately after WW2. (Just a coincidence that ‘Alibi’ was the topic for writing group last week!) However, in the last few months two of my suggestions have been chosen, ‘Sourdough’ by Robin Sloan, and ‘The North Shore’ by Ben Tufnell, so I thought someone else’s choice would be a good idea – as indeed it was!
By the way, after much anguish, and staying up late the night before the writing group get together, and carrying on early the next morning, I did finish my ‘Alibi’ and will share details about it at some point.
Lois Elsden 