By Harry Mottram: From J L Carr’s A Month in the Country to a month in space in Samantha Harvey’s novella Orbital we’ve read well over 100 books in the Axbridge Four Seasons Book Club since the late 1990s. It all began when I placed a postcard on the noticeboard in Cheddar Library asking if anyone was interested in forming a local book club. I was working as a sub-editor at the Cheddar Valley Gazette, so I also placed a notice in the newspaper. Prompted by BBC Radio Four’s Book Club programme with James Naughtie I had the then idea of reading novels that I’d wouldn’t normally read. With some interest in the way of phone calls – this was before most people had emails – and the odd knock on the door, I chose a date and waited to see who turned up.
Jane Panter and Audrey Thomas were the first through the door and those two were to be loyal members until ill health eventually ended their ability to attend. They were invaluable to the group as their life experiences – having both served in British Intelligence in World War Two – gave an added perspective to some of the discussions we were to have – especially when the novels we read covered the period of the 1930s to the 1950s. And they were also generous hosts for the meetings – Jane’s house on Hillside meant a scramble up her garden with the reward of views across to the Isle of Wedmore and Audrey’s home where a bottle of wine was always being opened as we arrived.
Members must forgive me if I can’t recall all the names of those who came to that first meeting in 1998 to launch the group, but Kate Taylor suggested the first book J L Carr’s A Month in the Country which is still considered as one of the best novels we’re read over three decades. Phyliss Goddard from Cheddar was at that first meeting – as was Joanna Kenny also from Cheddar who mentioned she was buying her books from something called Amazon – I had no idea what she meant since South America seemed an unlikely source for paperbacks. Mary Evans, Liz MacDonnell and Tania Browne were all early members as was Georgie Syed who was the most dedicated of members – as she actually not only read the books but gave erudite summaries of the narratives and kept a list of what we read. Jo Harris, Janie Gray and Lisa McCluskey, Sue Purkiss, Gail Lethbridge, Robin Aung, Margaret Needham and Marian Clements along with others joined up with some people joining and then leaving – often as they moved house, decided it was not for them, or in some cases after falling out with one of the members. I certainly had a bust up with one new member from Shipham who was rather rude to our host Mary – openly belittling the group and making the cardinal sin of slagging off Jane Austen!
The club met at various members’ homes about every six or seven weeks usually with a summer barbeque and a Christmas meeting with food. To help the conversation wine was always part of the evening which lubricated some of the arguments – that sometimes sprang from the themes of the novels rather than the content. One of the problems of all book clubs is who speaks first or in what order. In some meetings I suggested if the novel was set in India for instance, then after the person who had chosen has spoken then it would be anyone next who had been to India until it got to me as I’ve never been – although I have had an Indian take-away – which doesn’t count. Other times we tend to go round in a circle – with around up to a dozen members maximum present as anymore it becomes too unwieldy. By the time it gets to the last person to speak everything has been said. Some members would join with the intention of getting us to read a chosen book and once we finally read it, they would leave having completed their mission – which was fine. What’s good though is there has always been a solid group who have been members for over a quarter of a century. Georgie, Janie, and David Parkin of course – Sue Purkiss and Jo Harris. Sadly, some members have died – the most recent being Alex Duncan. He was such an asset as he had no qualms in challenging opinions of members – which all book clubs need – disagreement over whether a book was any good – often questioning the orthodoxy.
Over the years the club has grown and shrunk in size with members not only in Axbridge and Cheddar but also Wedmore, Badgworth and Cocklake and at one time collapsed when new members just wanted to gossip and didn’t read the books. It restarted a few weeks later with only the stalwarts who actually read the novels under Jane Panter’s suggestion – with Maggie Makepeace choosing a new name: The Four Seasons from the original Bookmarkers – as we thought four times a year was plenty. And as Jane said we still had £16.75 in the kitty for Christmas!
And so, to the books – some I can’t remember reading or were so unmemorable that they have passed me by. I also lapsed attending at times as the meetings were sometimes on the same nights as council meetings which I attended as a newspaper reporter. As mentioned the first novel was J L Carr’s A Month in the Country about a war veteran finding peace in restoring a wall painting in a country church. The only point of contention was the illustrations which some members didn’t like as they preferred to imagine the events rather than have a picture supplied by the author. The next novel in February 1999 was One True Thing by Anna Quindlen followed by The Way I found Her by Rose Tremain and then Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe chosen by David Evans who subsequently left the book club to work in publishing in London and becoming an author in his own right. The club continued with novels mainly from the 20th century – Doris Lessing, Nick Hornby, Carol Shields and Sebastian Faulkes and company. Some novels stick out due to the arguments they prompted such as Birdman by Mo Hayden which was deemed far too violent giving Georgie nightmares and The Old Devils by Kingsley Amis which I chose which got a slagging off as it was deemed sexist! F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby chosen by the American member Robin Kanarak sparked a debate over whether it was The Great American Novel – some felt not – although I had the vision of Mia Farrow from the 1974 film in my mind which for me was all it needed to make it great.
I Captured The Castle by Dodi Smith was universally popular as was Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons, while other popular reads included All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver, The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster, The Good Terrorist by Doris Lessing, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce and Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owen. And there were some of my favourites that included Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Brendt, Our Man in Havana by Graham Green, The House by the Lake by Thomas Harding and The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion.
Looking back over the last 26 or so years as the club began in November 1998 with that first meeting, the choice of novels have reflected the tastes of the members – sometimes a classic – at least two Jane Austen novels – sometimes a popular best seller like The Eagle Has Landed by Jack Higgins or The Curious Incident of the Dog In The Night by Mark Haddon and the first Harry Potter (Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone) novel by J K Rowling – and sometimes one of those novels which can be used as a door stop afterwards as they are so long – no names mentioned er… The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie.
One of the questions that people sometimes ask about books and book clubs is do you read the novels in a book or on a Kindle or other electronic device? Or can you listen to the novels on audio – or if it has been serialised on the radio? The answer is all of the above but for most people in the club they read paper copies – hardback or paperback – mostly bought online or from a book shop although I try to get mine from the library if they are available. Audio versions are good if you have to travel long distances for work and don’t have time – and if you get on with the actor reading the book – some voices jar. The likes of Martin Jarvis, Joanna Lumley, Kelsey Grammer and Stephen Fry generally hit the spot. I’ve never had a Kindle but for me and for many the old-school book made of paper works as it doesn’t need a battery, and you can scribble notes on the pages as you go along.
Now some 27 years up the book club continues although communication is by email and not letters and phone calls as it was in 1998 – with new members from Wedmore like Steve and Pauline from Banwell as well as Sam, Robert and company – all keeping the spirit of the original idea inspired by Radio Four’s Book Club alive. We’ve had Zoom meetings during the Covid lockdowns, had trips to the cinema to watch film versions of the books and had novelists come to give talks on rare occasions – as well has having members who have published in their own right. In total not only have we read around 130 or more novels, but we have also drunk at least 200 bottles of wine and several hundred weight of crisps, peanuts, chips, cheese biscuits, mince pies, quiches and canapes. A testament to the enduring love of reading and talking about books but also of drinking and eating in excellent company in the comfort of someone’s home.
This is a list of most of the books we’ve read – I’m sure I’ve missed out some:
2025 03 11 Books in the Book Club listed
10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World. By Elif Shafak.
About A Boy. By Nick Hornby
A Christmas Carol. By Charles Dickens
A Fine Balance by Rohit Mistry
A Hundred Secret Senses. By Amy Tanny Lou Lou
All the Light We Cannot See. By Anthony Doerr
As If. By Blake Morrison
American Pastoral – Philip Roth
A Month in the Country. By J. L. Carr
A Whole Life, by Robert Seethaler
A Wild Herb Soup. By Emile Carles
Behind The Scenes of the Museum. By Kate Atkinson
Bend in The River. By VS Naipal
Beyond Black. By Hilary Mantel
Birdman. By Mo Hayder
Birdsong. By Sebastian Faulks
Bonfire of the Vanities. By Tom Wolfe
Brick Lane – Monica Ali
Canada. By Richard Ford
Child In The Forest. By W Foley
Clemetis Tree. By Anne Widecombe
Cold Comfort Farm. By Stella Gibbons
Collected Stories: The Machine Stops. By EM Forster
Conversations at Curlow Creek. By David Malouff
Cranford. By Elizabeth Gaskill
Cutting for Stone. By Abraham Verghese
Demon Copperhead. By Barbara Kingsolver
Damascus. By Richard Beard
Eagle Has Landed. By Jack Higgins
Eat, Love, Pray – Elizabeth Gilbert
Elementals. By AS Byatt
Endurance. By Alfred Lansing
Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway
Frankie and Stankie – Barbara Trapido
First Flight. By Geoffrey Wellum
Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver
For Whom the Bell Tolls. By Ernest Hemingway
Gem Squash Tokoloshe – Rachel Zadock
Gentlemen & Players. By Joanne Harris
God of Small Things. Arandati Roy
Half a Yellow Sun. By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Hamnet. By Maggie I’Farrell
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. By JK Rowling
Have the Men Had Enough? By Margaret Forster
I Captured The Castle. By Dodi Smith
In Patagonia – Bruce Chatwin
Interview with the Vampire. By Anne Rice
In the Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Iris: A memoir of Iris Murdoch. By John Bayley
Lara. By Bernadine Evaristo
Larry’s Party. By Carol Shields
Last Letters Home. By Tamsin Day Lewis
Loitering with Intent – Muriel Spark
Lolita – Vladimir Naboko
Lord Jim – Joseph Conrad
Lorna Doone. By Richard Blackmore
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. By John Brendt
Mortal Causes. By Ian Rankin
Nazi Officer’s Wife. By Edith Beer
Night Train. By Martin Amis
Northanger Abbey. By Jane Austen
Northern Lights. By Philip Pullman
October Skies: The Rocket Boys. Homer H Hickham
Of Mice and Men. By John Steinbeck
One True Thing. By Anna Quidlen
On the Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin
Orbital. By Samantha Harvey
Original Sin. By PD James
Our Man in Havana. By Graham Green
Pachinko. By Min Jin Lee
Patagonia. By Bruce Chatwin
Penelope Unbound. By Mary Morrissy
Picture of Dorian Gray. By Oscar Wilde
Piranesi. By Susanna Clarke
Prodical Summer. By Barbara Kingsover
Resistance – Owen Sheers
Right Ho, Jeeves. By PG Wodehouse
Round Ireland with a Fridge. By Tony Hawks
Satanic Verses. By Salman Rushdie
Scoop – Evelyn Waugh
Tender is the Night – Scott Fitzgerald
The Blue Afternoon. By William Boyd
The Book Seller of Kabul – Asne Seierstad
The Book Thief. By Markus Zusak
The Brooklyn Follies. By Paul Auster
The Clothes They Stood Up In. By Alan Bennett
The Curious Incident of the Dog In The Night. By Mark Haddon
The English Patient. By Michael Ondaatje
The Eyre Affair. By Jasper Fforde
The Good Soldier Svejk. By Jaroslav Hašek
The Good Terrorist. By Doris Lessing
The Great Gatsby. By F Scott Fitzgerald
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer
The History of Mr Polly. By HG Wells
The House by the Lake – Thomas Harding
The Inseparables. By Simone de Beauvoir
The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
The Lamb – Lucy Rose Wilson Green
The Lamplighters. By Emma Lomax
The Lion Children. By Angus Mensie and Travis McNeice
The Music Shop – Rachel Joyce
The Old Devils. By Kingsley Amis
The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot. By Marrianne Cronin
The Old Filth. By Jane Gardam
The Passion. By Jeanette Winterson
The Pearl. By John Steinbeck
The Pretty How Town. By Nicholas Freeling
The Pursuit of Love. By Nancy Mitford
The Rosie Project:. By Graeme Siimsion
The Salt Path. By Raynor Winn
The Secret Life of Bees. By Sue Monk Kidd
The Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood. By Rebecca Wells
The Shadow of the Wind. By Carlo Ruiz Zafon
The Spy Who Loved. By Clare Mulley
The True History of the Kelly Gang. By Peter Carey
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry – Rachel Joyce
The Way I found Her. By Rose Tremain
The Wide Sargasso Sea – Jean Rhys
The Woman in White. By Wilkie Collins
The World’s Wife – Carol Ann Duffy
Things can only get Worse – John O’Farrell
Things Fall Apart – Chinua Achebe
T’is. By Frank McCourt
Strange Fits of Passion. By Anita Shreve
The Whalebone Theatre. By Joanna Quinn
Where the Crawdads Sing. By Delia Owen
White Cargo. By Felicity Kendall
Wild Swans – Three Daughters of China. By Jung Chang
Wrong Boy. By Willy Russell
If you are interested in joining we welcome new members if there’s room – drop me an email at harryfmottram@gmail.com
Axbridge Review is edited by Harry Mottram and is published for the interest of himself and fellow residents.
Harry is a freelance journalist. Follow him on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube etc
Email:harryfmottram@gmail.com
Website:www.harrymottram.co.uk
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