Lesley Thomson & Elly Griffiths talk about their tour of bookshops in Sussex for National Crime Reading Month

Lesley Thomson & Elly Griffiths, Radio Sussex

The North London Book Group is a phenomenon. One group, formed ten years ago has become a massive umbrella for around twenty fiction groups, a 19th century novel group, a sci-fi group, a Shakespeare group and a graphic novel group. I meet the founders, Paul and Dawn, in the Dog and Duck in Soho, where I learn that reading books is not the loneliest thing in the world.

The Book Group: Ep 1 A pub in Soho

Brighton’s Queer Books Group devotes itself to books whose subject matter is gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, a body of work which inevitably charts society’s changing attitudes to sexual politics. It’s a group that welcomes straight and gay people – what’s important is the books. I hate it when people make grand claims for what literature does, but inevitably, these are often books which have fundamentally changed some lives – and saved others. Most books can’t really make that claim.

Seriousness aside, though, this group was a lot of fun… And there’s a dog called Bukowski.

The Book Group Ep. 2 Bukowski in Brighton

Readers' groups are a massive cultural phenomenon, but they meet in private, in libraries, front rooms, pubs and clubs, much of what they do is under the radar. So every fortnight, author and journalist William Shaw goes to eavesdrop, find out the story behind the group and listen to them talk about the books they love – or hate

The Book Group Podcast