Our programme is decided once a year at an Eating Meeting, when everyone proposes 2 or 3 books and eleven are democratically chosen. We avoid very thick books, which excludes some classics, and order the programme to fit the publication of paperback editions of new books.

In January we read a book by the American Ann Pratchett. We agreed it was poor and wondered if the critics had actually read it. In February we read a family history, House of Glass by Hadley Freeman, which includes an account of antisemitism.

We usually talk about the content, the plot and characters in the books, rather than literary nuances and we are comfortably middle-brow. Our meetings are the highlight of the month.