LMA Book Group
About LMA Book Group
The LMA Book Group meets monthly to explore a range of London writing, with a remit covering fiction and non-fiction for all periods in London's history.
For each session, a display of original archive material is available to stimulate discussion. All are welcome to attend - though if you haven't read the book there may well be spoilers!
The LMA Book Group remains a virtual discussion group and we meet monthly online.
Upcoming Reads for 2024:
July - 'The Fountain Overflows' by Rebecca West
Wednesday 10 July | 6pm
West’s 1957 bestselling novel describes the life of the children of the Aubrey family, who have moved from Scotland to the South London suburbs to escape a scandal involving their father. Drawing on her own unhappy childhood, West creates a world where adults are strange and unreliable, and where the uncanny is close at hand.
August - No meeting, summer break
September - 'The Crimson Petal and the White; by Michael Faber
Wednesday 11 September | 6pm
This novel from 2002 offers a contemporary slant on the Victorian sensation novel, set in Notting Hill in the 1870s. It tells the story of Sugar, a notorious sex worker, and the consequences of her social rise through her relationship with William Rackham, a perfume magnate. Faber offers a vivid picture of London’s seamy underbelly which is indebted to the work of Charles Dickens, only much darker.
October - 'About a Boy' by Nick Hornby
Wednesday 16 September | 6pm
Set in London in the early 1990s, Hornby’s comic coming of age novel is probably better remembered as a bestselling film featuring Hugh Grant. We will go back to the original book to explore Hornby’s portrayal of London in the 1990s. The plot revolves around the friendship between 36-year-old Will, a man who is refusing to grow up, and his girlfriend’s son Marcus, an introverted schoolboy, and the lessons they learn from each other.
November - 'Under the Net' by Iris Murdoch
Wednesday 13 November | 6pm
Jake Donaghue is a struggling writer, penniless, in need of somewhere to live and someone to sponge off. This picaresque novel follows him through a series of events initiated by a meeting with an ex-girlfriend. Murdoch’s first novel, this can be read as a humorous slice of 1950s bohemia, or a more complex philosophical work.
December - 'The Buddha of Suburbia' by Hanif Kureishi
Wednesday 11 December | 6pm
Now regarded as a modern British classic, Kureishi’s first novel announced the arrival of major literary talent when it was published in 1990. Set in 1970s London, it tells the story of Karim, a mixed-race teenager who is desperate to escape a dreary suburb and explore his identity, which Kureishi explores with irreverent and occasionally bawdy humour.
To book please visit LMA’s Eventbrite page.