We all thought that this book was an exemplary piece of writing by a young woman - barely out of her teens - illustrating the deep south in Georgia, USA, during those times of bleak hardship, deprivation, embedded racism and social isolation. She became a literary sensation upon publication of this, her first novel, and…

Forecast snow limited us to a potentially less satisfactory Zoom meeting. However, the choice of The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas ensured that it was a very lively, if one-sided, discussion. It was almost universally disliked, with everyone finding it difficult to empathise with any of the characters as they exhibited racism, sexism, foul language and…

This book is an accurate telling of a time when Scotland gained its identity. A nation's history informs the characteristic of its people. The scourge of the Reformation in the 16th century led to a time of renaissance and freedom. New Scotland had a reformed Presbyterian Scottish church led by the Kirk and Universities rather…