Mary's Feminist Fiction Reading Group

Welcome to the wonderful Feminist Fiction Reading Group! A place to discover and enjoy a range of titles and themes lovingly hand picked by Mary. Woven together by feminist perspectives and critique, we will be discussing everything from unsung classics to contemporary literary fiction.As we move in to Autumn, this is the perfect accompaniment to those darker evenings. Sylvia Townsend Warner's _Lolly Willowes_ was her first novel (1926) which established her as a new literary talent and was shortlisted for the Prix Femina. Often described as a contemporary of writers such as Virginia Woolf and Djuna Barnes, Warner and her partner Valentine Ackland were known as the Communists of Wessex. An unsung literary wonder, her quirks and oddities run throughout her writing, often leading to stories of curses, magic and witchcraft!_Lolly Willowes, so gentle and accommodating, has depths no one suspects. When she suddenly announces that she is leaving London and moving, alone, to the depths of the countryside, her overbearing relatives are horrified. But Lolly has a greater, far darker calling than family: witchcraft._‘The book I’ll be pressing into people’s hands forever … It tells the story of a woman who rejects the life that society has fixed for her in favour of freedom … tips suddenly into extraordinary, lucid wildness’ - _Helen Macdonald_‘Witty, eerie, tender … her prose, in its simple, abrupt evocations, has something preternatural about it’ - _John Updike_‘A great shout of life and individuality … an act of defiance that gladdens the soul’ - _Guardian_There’s no need to prepare or pressure to contribute at all - just bring your lovely self - but do feel free to mention a particular passage or character that you enjoyed during your reading.Each entry place costs £5, fully redeemable as a voucher towards a copy of the book. We hope you’ll join us for some great conversation, and perhaps some baked goods!Our Previous book group books include:_The Enchanted April_ by Elizabeth Von Arnim
_Kitchen_ by Banana Yoshimoto
_Sula_ by Toni Morrison
_Hot Milk_ by Deborah Levy
_Queens of Sarmiento Park_ by Camila Sosa Villada
_Heart Lamp_ by Banu Mushtaq
_Hagstone_ by Sinead Gleeson?
_Wide Sargasso Sea_ by Jean Rhys
_Written on the Body_ by Jeanette Winterson
_Split Tooth_ by Tanya Tagaq
_Long Petal of the Sea_ by Isabelle Allende
_How to be both_ by Ali Smith
_Woman at Point Zero_ by Nawal El Saadawi
_The Persians_ by Sanam Mahloudji
_She Who Remains_ by Rene Karabash
_Their Eyes Were Watching God_ by Zora Neale Hurston