Do you like reading historical fiction? Or diaries, biographies or autobiographies? Do you pick up a factual history book to read for fun? Or just love reading about history?

I have started a History Book Group with a particular format. We would each choose and read a book on a theme agreed by the group, so it might be the Stuart Restoration, or the history of Australia. The book could be fiction, non-fiction, modern or written during the period we are discussing. We have a couple of months to do this (so the group only meets six times a year) and we then meet up and each of share what we have read, and our impressions of that period of history.

It is a way of learning about a new area of history, finding out about other people’s choice of book, (possibly a different genre of book to those we normally read), and give us an excuse to read about history.

Click here to see the topics we have chosen and the books we have read

Everyone in the group needs to actively participate by reading a book and feeding back to the group, but help would be given in finding a suitable book if requested. There is a bit of coordination, so we don’t get several people reading the same book.