Kiddar’s Luck (1951), by Jack Common

By Val Hewson This month we read working class fiction and I discovered a book which makes me think about where I come from. … Newcastle being a fine town to roam in, especially after dark. Its natural features are excellent, that’s why, since it is all hills, vales, bridges and one view succeeds another … Continue reading →

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1958) by Alan Sillitoe

Book review by Alice C: Saturday Night and Sunday Morning was: ‘That rarest of all finds: a genuine, no-punches-pulled unromanticised working-class novel which makes Room at the Top look like a vicar’s tea party’, according to a review in the Daily Telegraph. Born in a council house in Nottingham in 1928, his father illiterate and … Continue reading →

Beginning with a Bash (1935) by Alice Tilton

Review by Kathryn Rangeley: Like another member of the group, I chose to find a book by a woman in the hope that I might get the ‘hard-boiled’, tough aspect of the story without too much gratuitous violence and misogyny’. I found what I hoped would be exactly the right novel at the Pier Bookshop … Continue reading →

Impressions of Latterday Symphony (1927) by Romer Wilson

By Alison Butlin, Chris Hopkins, Mary Grover and Val Hewson Impressions of Latterday Symphony (1927) by Romer Wilson Recently our group read books by novelist, poet, short story writer and anthologist Romer Wilson (1891-1930), whose work has been almost entirely forgotten. We usually read popular fiction, which was never Wilson’s focus, but she was born … Continue reading →