If you want to have the real-life Nellibobs reading experience, there’s still plenty of time to sign up to Brian’s Dorset Delights course  at Birkenhead Central Library. The course takes place each Thursday morning, 10.30am-12.30pm for the next nine weeks, exploring literature inspired by the county. Places on the course cost £60; £50 for pensioners, students and those on income support; £40 for Get Into Reading members and £30 for GIR members receiving income support.

To book your place, download a booking form here or e-mail Jessica Reeves: jessicareeves@thereader.org.uk

However if you missed out then there’s no need to fear because Part Two begins in the New Year, in the very same place. Brian will continue to illustrate Dorset’s various strong literary connections by reading a selection of works from authors who lived, loved (in the case of Sir Thomas Wyatt, Dorset was his final resting place, being buried there) and were inspired by the picturesque county.

Jane Austen frequently holidayed in Lyme Regis and the resort figures large in Persuasion, which would be her last completed novel, and which will be read during the course. Wordsworth wrote his earliest poems in Dorset and T.F Powys and John Fowles both lived there – to signal this, the course will also feature poems and short stories by these three writers.

This selection of literary works will be read over a ten week period, and promises to be relaxing, illuminating and immensely enjoyable. The course will start on Thursday 19th January at Birkenhead Central Library and all texts will be provided. Funds will go towards supporting The Reader Organisation. For more information on booking, call 0151 207 7207.

Also, you can get a taster of what to expect from the wonderful Mr Nellist here…

The first part of the novel describes the Mellstock church band making the rounds of the village on Christmas Eve, and last week Brian treated us to a hearty rendition of the Christmas carol ‘Remember Adam’s Fall’, as sung by the choir to the comely new schoolmistress Fancy Day. Unlike Adam, Hardy’s rural idyll remains intact so far in this early novel, which contrasts with the darker tone of later works such as Tess of the d’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure.

We’ve discovered a lot about the background to the novel and Hardy’s early life and career – including his false start as a failed satirist of London high society – thanks to Brian’s boundless energy and enthusiasm, which you can see for yourself here.

There are still seven weeks of the course remaining, so if you’d like to come along then contact Mike Butler, Communications Intern: mikebutler@thereader.org.uk, or you can find more information here - discounted prices are available for latecomers!

Alternatively, keep a look-out for details of Part Two of the course which will start in January, when we’ll be exploring works by Austen, Wordsworth and John Fowles.

All proceeds support The Reader Organisation.

The course runs for ten weeks, and we’ll be concentrating on Thomas Hardy’s optimistic early novel Under the Greenwood Tree, a selection of the poems and a few of his short stories as well as poems by his friend and mentor William Barnes.

The first session will be 10.30am–12.30pm on Thursday 13^th October and then a further nine consecutive Thursdays at the same time, with the last session on Thursday 15^th December.

The sessions will take place in the Meeting Room at Birkenhead Central Library, Borough Road, Birkenhead, Wirral, CH41 2XB.

The cost of the course is £60, with concessions for pensioners, students and those receiving income support (£50), Get Into Reading members (£40) and Get Into Reading members receiving income support (£30). All proceeds support The Reader Organisation.

To book your place you need to fill in a booking form, which you can find here, or contact Mike Butler, Communications Intern, at mikebutler@thereader.org.uk or 0152 207 7207.

See for yourself what it’s like to read with Brian here.

Today Dorset has become a national playground and retirement home but in the past it was a place of rural poverty with an important seaboard (Poole harbour), local fishing and quarrying. That was the Dorset that Wordsworth and Hardy knew, though Jane Austen writes of the beginning of tourism at Lyme Regis. We shall read a few things rather slowly so as not to burden you with a lot of time-consuming demands.

In Part I we shall read Hardy’s Under the Greenwood Tree, a selection of the poems and a few of his short-stories as well as poems by his friend and mentor William Barnes. After Christmas in Part II we would read Jane Austen’s last novel Persuasion, Lyrical Ballads and ‘The Ruined Cottage’ by Wordsworth and maybe short stories by T. F. Powys and John Fowles. You could sign up for either part or both.

All proceeds support The Reader Organisation.

The first session will be 10.30am – 12.30pm on Thursday 13^th October and then a further nine consecutive Thursdays at the same time, with the last session on Thursday 15^th December.

The sessions will take place in the Meeting Room at Birkenhead Central Library, Borough Road, Birkenhead, Wirral, CH41 2XB.

The cost of the course is £60, with concessions for pensioners, students and those receiving income support (£50), Get Into Reading members (£40) and Get Into Reading members receiving income support (£30).

To book your place you need to fill in a booking form, which you can find here, or contact Mike Butler, Communications Intern, at mikebutler@thereader.org.uk or 0152 207 7207.

See for yourself what it’s like to read with Brian here.

With more than fifty years’ experience teaching and sharing literature, Brian brings serious wisdom, deep attention and infectious gusto to this popular summer course.

Many short stories are too long to be read aloud at a single sitting so this year we’ll spread four of them over nine weeks. They are all by Irish writers: Sheridan Le Fanu, James Joyce, Elizabeth Bowen and William Trevor. They include a ghost, a New Year party, a memory of childhood and the discovery of an infidelity.

Texts for each week will be provided in instalments and if you miss a session the next issue can be sent on to you.

Sessions will run from 10.30am – 12.30pm for nine consecutive Tuesdays beginning Tuesday 31^st May until Tuesday 26^th July. All sessions will take place at this venue:

Get Into Reading
Lauries Community Centre
142 Claughton Road
Birkenhead
CH41 6EY

The cost of the course is £60, with concessions for pensioners, students and those receiving income support (£50) and Get Into Reading members (£40). 

To book your place you need to fill in a booking form, which you can download here as a Word or PDF document, or contact Mark Till, Training Administrator, on marktill@thereader.org.uk or 0151 794 2286.

Get a taste of what it’s like to read with Brian here.

(Don’t forget you can see him in person at next month’s Masterclass.)