South Manchester Book Group

We're a friendly and open reading group, and we share a love of books and discussing them with other people. We meet every fortnight, but you don't have to come to them all. It's dead simple; choose a book you like the sound of, read it (or even part of it) beforehand and turn up with a few ideas and money for beer / wine / flirtinis. It's very informal, and we're quite a friendly bunch.

We meet at a pub in Didsbury around 8 pm. We can usually be found on the table with the books and flirtinis.

We've become rather popular recently so unfortunately aren't accepting new members just at the moment. But please drop us a line on the Contact Us form and we'll add you to our mailing list.

Our reading list, past, present, and future, appears here and a short version of what we’re reading next is here.

The Recent Unpleasantness

A shadow passes across the sun — an owl tears the throat from a vole — a withered sapling grows in the stone circle — and a two-headed calf is born in the ruined stable.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre, the falcon cannot hear the falconer.

Didsbury, and other places, have suffered from the Dread Visitation, and despite our recent precautions to ward against the bane:

Our Recent Precautions

it is still upon us.

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.

We consulted a saw-bones medical expert who advised on certain prophylactic measures:

Certain Prophylactic Measures

which we are certain would have proved effective were it not for an unexpected influx of brontosaurus that normally reside in Fletcher Moss into The Fletcher Moss.

An Unexpected Influx of Brontosaurus

And the blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned.

Alack the Fletcher Moss is now shutted-up and we must, perforce remain indoors.

We're now, therefore, a virtual bookgroup, meeting online and inwith the matrix.  Books that we may read to lift our spirits are:

Love in the Time of Cholera — Gabriel García Márquez
Oryx and Crake* — Margaret Atwood
A Journal of the Plague Year — Daniel Defoe
Severance — Ling Ma
The Plague — Albert Camus
The Last Man — Mary Shelley
Blindness — José Saramago
Ghost Wall — Sarah Moss
The Child Garden — Geoff Ryman
The Great Believers — Rebecca Makkai
The Road — Cormac McCarthy
The Doomsday Book — Connie Willis
The Andromeda Strain — Michael Crichton
Year of Wonders — Geraldine Brooks

 — first in a triology, with The Year of the Flood and Maddaddam.

The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.

We hope that the horseman's siege will soon be raised, and that we may soon be lifting our spirits as we did in former times:

Lifting Our Spirits in Former Times

We've also set up a helpline for those worried about the pestilence.  Please consult this chart:


This Chart


and contact the helpline immediately if you shew symptoms of any of: blasted, colick and wind, flox, French pox, frighted, headmouldshot, mouldfallen, King's evil, livergrown, rising of the lights, swine pox, spotted fever, purples, surfeit, wen, or most horrifying of all, planet.  The helpline will tell you where to go.

REMAIN INDOORS