The Scarlet Book Club - November meeting

Tuesday, 03 December 2012

Despite the stormy weather, most members made it to the November meeting and we were pleased to welcome another new member.

We enjoyed a lively discussion about The Siege by Helen Dunmore enriched by the perspectives of those members who had visited Leningrad at various times. There was a general consensus that this was a thought-provoking book that was well worth reading, perhaps most of all for the insights it gave into the plight of the people of Leningrad during World War II.

 However, the book also raises broader questions about human nature and the effects of adversity on human behaviour. We felt the high standard of Dunmore's prose would encourage members to read some of her other books. Indeed, some members had already read her novel Zennor in Darkness.

The next meeting will be on Thursday, December 20th at 2pm in the Scarlet library when the book under discussion will be King Dido by Alexander Baron.

1911, East London: The police collaborate with racketeers to keep an uneasy peace, periodically broken by violent gang wars.

Dido Peach comes to prominence by breaking the unwritten rules of the street. For a brief time he rules the underworld. His fall is sudden and spectacular, shaking even the callous and vicious neighbourhood in which he is trapped.

This new edition of King Dido has rekindled interest in Baron, one of the many important, yet overlooked British writers of the 20th century.

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