You must be a Member of Ealing u3a to take part in an Interest Group

CURRENT GROUP STATUS

We meet on the third Friday of each month at 10:15am for coffee followed by a discussion on the chosen book.

Our meetings take place in Ealing W5 in the home of one of our group.

The aim of the Literature Group is to cover both established classics and newly published works which include fiction, biography, drama and poetry. We all decide on a theme and take it in turns to choose a book and lead a discussion.

An example of some of the works discussed in past sessions include the following subjects:

French Literature, Satire and Humour, Children in Literature, African Literature, The Jewish Connection, Contemporary Fiction.

We also have some sessions when members are invited to select any book of their choice.

Our current theme in 2025 is Art in Literature: So far we have discussed:

• "Thunderclap: A memoir of Art and Life and sudden Death", by Laura Cumming
• "Summer in February", by Jonathan Smith

We will be continuing our discussions from May 2025 with:

• "Girl with a Pearl Earring", by Tracy Chevalier
• "Notes on an Exhibition", by Patrick Gale
• "Tempest-Tost"by Robertson-Davies
• "The Noise of Time", by Julian Barnes
• "Music and Silence" by Rose Tremain
• "The Portrait", by Ian Pears

We are often able to obtain our books from the Public Library, and most of us who have access to the internet find that we can not only buy books cheaply on line but can look up details. Books can be often purchased fairly cheaply to be read on Kindle.

We have lively and informative discussions. Our group at present is almost complete with one vacancy but beyond that, we would welcome putting on our waiting list any new members who are interested in joining our Literature group.

For further information please contact:

Group Convenor - Mary Hagger by email through the Group email link above on this page.

Revised April 2025

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During 2024 our theme was Twentieth century Literature.

• “Three men on the Bummel” by Jerome K Jerome, period 1900-1910
• “A portrait of the artist as a young man” by James Joyce, period 1911-1920
• “The Garden Party” by Katherine Mansfield, period 1921-1930
• “Mr Norris changes trains” by Christopher Isherwood, period 1931-1940
• “The Heart of the Matter” by Grahame Greene, period 1941-1950

• “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury, period 1951-1960
• “A house for Mr Biswas” by V.S Naipaul, period 1961-1970
• “Song of Solomon” by Toni Morrison, period 1971-1980
• “What we talk about when we talk about love" by Raymond Carver, period 1981-1990
• “Plainsong” by Kent Hanuf, period 1991-2000

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During 2023 our theme was Migration and the Clash of Cultures

Titles included were:

“Every light in the house is burning“ by Andrea Levy

“The hired man" by Aminatta Forna

“The year of the runaways" by Sanjeev Sahota

“Sweet sour” by Timothy Mo

“Ignorance” by Milan Kundera

“No ballet shoes in Syria” by Catharine Bruton

“Marriage Material” by Sathnam Sanghera

“The Reluctant Fundamentalist” by Mohsin Hamid

A previous theme was THEATRE and the books discussed were:

"White Cargo" by Felicity Kendal

"Beside myself, an actor’s life", by Antony Sher,

"Morality Play", by Barry Unsworth,

"This much is true", by Miriam Margoyles

"Wise Children", by Angela Carter

"An actor and his time", by John Gielgud

"John Thaw: the biography", by Stafford Hildred

"Mrs Jordan’s profession", by Claire Tomalin

"The Exonerated", by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen