Hello and welcome.
In the spring of 2001, an advert appeared in the gay listings of Time Out asking people interested in founding a reading group to get in touch. The group met for the first time in June at the Oak Bar on Green Lanes in Newington. Seven people attended the meeting. In August 2001, the founder had to leave London and moderation of the group befell one of the founding members who created a website and set up the Yahoo! Groups mailing list. The current version of the website went live on 20 May 2005 to mark the group's 4th anniversary. We have worked with the Open University on a research project on reading groups and the way their members communicate and use language.

How it works.
The group now boasts over 200 members of all ages, backgrounds and nationalities. The group (rarely more than 10 members at a time) usually meets on the second Sunday of the month in central London. We have a drink and discuss a book of gay interest. Each month, a book is chosen from suggestions made by the members attending the meeting. We try to choose books of good literary quality but we also like to be adventurous and original in our choices. In addition to being an enjoyable and informal social experience, the group is a great way to discover new authors or works outside our usual personal horizons. A few authors (Laurence Brown, Marion Husband, Stella Duffy, Alan Sheridan, VG Lee, Sarah Waters, Tom Rob Smith) have been kind enough to join us in our discussions of their books.