A Family Affair

2016 is here and we're back up and running at the Mansion with our regular weekly Shared Reading groups from Mondays to Fridays, along with our Book Thieves and Caldies Creatives groups for children and young people just across the way at The Reader Ice Cream Parlour.

It might be a New Year but old friends are never far from our thoughts. The members of our 'Family Matters' Shared Reading group reunited yesterday, over a year since the group came to a close following leader Esther Harsh's return to America. During her Postgraduate study at the University of Liverpool, Esther ran Family Matters every Friday, featuring classic Victorian literature all touching upon the idea of families and family relationships. The group proved incredibly popular, attracting a dedicated number of members who all connected with the books that were read and one another so well that they have continued to keep in touch - becoming something of a family themselves. On a visit back to the UK, Esther met up with the rest of the group for a spot of afternoon tea, along with poetry (of course) and - as one of the original group members told us -  lots of "smiles, hugs and tears", mainly of the happy sort.

It's wonderful to hear how such firm friendships have come out of the group, and we hope there's many more reunions as yet to come!

The members of the Family Matters Shared Reading group - reuniting away from Calderstones