TESTING Parish of Shirley, Croydon
St John the Evangelist and All Saints Spring Park Churches
The book club meet at St. John’s tea room on the third Sunday of the month at 3.30pm. It is held in the Tamberlin room which is situated behind the church. It is open to everyone whether attending the church or not, so come and join us for tea and cake, and to discuss the book we have been reading and together choose the next one.
The next book group meeting is 20th October, the book is Clock Dance. Here is a brief synopsis.
Willa Drake can
count on one hand the defining moments of her life: when she was eleven and her
mother disappeared, being proposed to at twenty-one, the accident that would
make her a widow at forty-one. At each of these moments, Willa ended up on a
path laid out for her by others.
So when she receives a phone call telling her
that her son’s ex-girlfriend has been shot and needs her help, she drops
everything and flies across the country. The spur-of-the moment decision to
look after this woman – and her nine-year-old daughter, and her dog – will lead
Willa into uncharted territory. Surrounded by new and surprising neighbours,
she is plunged into the rituals that make a community, and takes pleasure in
the most unexpected things.
A bittersweet novel of hope and regret,
fulfilment and renewal, Clock Dance brings us the everyday
life of a woman who decides it’s never too late to change direction, and choose
your own path.
The book group meets in the Tamberlin room from 3:30pm.
The next meeting will be on Sunday 22nd September 3.30pm in the Tamberlin room.
The book of the month is
London, 1941. Amid the falling bombs Emmeline Lake dreams of becoming a fearless Lady War Correspondent. Unfortunately, Emmy instead finds herself employed as a typist for the formidable Henrietta Bird, the renowned agony aunt at Woman’s Friend magazine. Mrs Bird refuses to read, let alone answer, letters containing any form of Unpleasantness, and definitely not those from the lovelorn, grief-stricken or morally conflicted. But the thought of these desperate women waiting for an answer at this most desperate of times becomes impossible for Emmy to ignore. She decides she simply must help and secretly starts to write back – after all, what harm could that possibly do?
The book ban be found on Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1509853928/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_t9ezDbM3VDPVV Its also available at other bookstores.
by Sally Vickers
n 1958, Sylvia Blackwell, fresh from one of the new post-war Library Schools, takes up a job as children’s librarian in a run down library in the market town of East Mole.
Her mission is to fire the enthusiasm of the children of East Mole for reading. But her love affair with the local married GP, and her befriending of his precious daughter, her neighbour’s son and her landlady’s neglected grandchild, ignite the prejudices of the town, threatening her job and the very existence of the library with dramatic consequences for them all.
The next book club meeting is on 16th June At 3:30pm in the Tamberlin Room. Everyone is welcome.
Don’t forget its book group this afternoon. 3.30pm at St John’s church in the Tamberlin room, where we will be discussing Scapegoat and choosing our next book.
‘Someone jolted my elbow as I drank and said, “Je vous demande pardon,” and as I moved to give him space he turned and stared at me and I at him, and I realised, with a strange sense of shock and fear and nausea all combined, that his face and voice were known to me too well.
I was looking at myself.’
By chance, two men – one English, the other French – meet in a provincial railway station. Their resemblance is uncanny, and they spend the next few hours talking and drinking – until at last John, the Englishman, falls into a drunken stupor. It’s to be his last carefree moment, for when he wakes, his French companion has stolen his identity and disappeared. So John steps into the Frenchman’s shoes, and faces a variety of perplexing roles – as owner of a chateau, director of a failing business, head of a fractious family, and master of nothing.
This is the latest book chosen by the book club members. If you’re interested read the book and come along to the next meeting in the Tamberlin room behind the church. Next date is 19th May.
Next book club meeting is 19th May at 3.30pm. All welcome.