Reading Historical Novels meets fortnightly on alternate Monday mornings (excluding Bank Holidays) Our meetings run 10.00 a.m. to 12.00 from Monday 7th September 2026, Every fortnight the discussion will be led by a different member of the group on an historical novel of their choice.

The purpose of the group is to share and develop our mutual love of reading and learning about history from historical novels. No historical era, or country (up to and including the end of the 1960s) is ‘off-limits’, and whether your chosen novel is biographical, or you prefer to study the retelling of historical events, the choice is entirely up to you providing that your book does not exceed 400 pages (approx.)

The group will function on the assumption that all members are willing to lead at least one discussion a year – suggested approaches could be simply how well it’s written and gives a ‘feel’ of the age, historical accuracy, empathy, bias. Additional discussion points could include:-

• Who was/were the narrative voice/s and do you consider it/them reliable?
• How well does the history portrayed in the book match with your own knowledge of the period?
• What did you like and/or dislike about the book?
• Did you learn anything new that made you think differently about the main characters/events?
• What you have discovered about the authors' interests, expertise and background (historian, investigative journalism, crime writing etc) and how this might this have impacted on the way they wrote the novel?
• How did the author deal with the problem of making a book a ‘page turner’ when the historical outcome is known?

To allow everyone a chance to have a say and be actively involved, the group will be limited to 12 people and places will be allocated on a first come first served basis.

Reading Historical Novels Programme  2026-27
Date	Book title	Author	Presenter
7th September 2026	Murder at Wrotham Hill	Diana Southami	Carolyn
21st September 2026	Templar Silks	Elizabeth Chadwick	Vera
5th October 2026	tba	tba	Yvonne
19th October 2026	tba	tba	Pam
2nd November 2026	Tba	Tba	Ian
16th November 2026	The Citadel	A.J Cronin	Dilys
30th November 2026	The Frozen River	Ariel Lawhorn	Pat
14th December 2026	The Fallen Angel	Tracy Borman	Christine S
4th January 2027	Tba	Tba	Yvonne
18th January 2027	tba	tba	Dilys
1st February 2027	Clear	Carys Davies	Jenny
15th February 2027	The Secret River	Kate Grenville	Pam
1st March 2027	tba	tba	Christine G
15th March 2027	Mr Pip	Lloyd Jones	Carolyn
12th April 2027	Puritan Princess	Miranda Malins	Vera
19th April 2027	Social Event

There will be no meeting on 29th March 2027 as it’s Easter Monday