In 1912 a group of citizens came together to form the Leamington Literary and Philosophical Society for men, but 100 years later things have changed. Now everyone interested in reading is most welcome. We usually meet during the evening of the second Tuesday of each month, from September – June. Details of exact dates, times and venues can be found in the current programme. The lectures, often illustrated, are on a wide variety of topics, including the work of novelists, poets and playwrights.
We occasionally have well known speakers from further afield, these events being open to the general public for a fee. They have included such names as Andrew Motion, Poet Laureate, and Andrew Davies of television fame. We also arrange outings to places of literary interest and belong to various associated societies. Separate poetry, novel and play reading groups meet monthly in members’ houses.
President: Sir Anthony Hamilton
THE LATEST MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN 26th June 2026
To All Members and Friends of the Leamington Literary Society
I have pleasure in listing below the programme for the Society's 2026-7 season. An invitation to renew your membership will be sent out in August.
Please note that, in accordance with the vote taken at our Annual General Meeting on 9th June, meetings will no longer be held at the Oddfellows Hall. With effect from September we will be meeting at the Leamington Spa Baptist Church, 13 Chandos St, Leamington Spa CV32 4RN.
You may be interested in the spread of the vote taken at the AGM: of the 25 people present, 8 voted to stay at the Oddfellows and 14 to leave, with 3 abstentions.
Best Wishes
Trevor Humphreys
Chairman LLS
Enquiries: Trevor Humphreys 01926 887838 trevor.humphreys@outlook.com
FACEBOOK
Further details on the Leamington Literary Society, including previous and future events, can be found on its Facebook Pages
MEMBERSHIP DETAILS
If you would like to join the Society please contact the Membership Secretary direct or at a meeting of the Society.
Annual membership: £20-00, Joint membership: £35-00
Guests welcome at £5-00 per event
GUESTS
Guests are welcome. £2.50 per event
OUR COMMITTEE
The Leamington Literary Society Committee members are elected each year at the annual general meeting. The current committee is:
Chairman Trevor Humphreys (Tel 01926 887838)
trevor.humphreys@outlook.com
Vice Chairman Nigel Sharp (Tel 01926 889785)
Hon. Secretary Graham Cooper (Tel 01926 426942)
Membership Secretary Annabel Sharp (Tel 01926 889785)
Hon. Treasurer Annabel Sharp (Tel 01926 889785)
Committee Members Jim Dobson, Fiona Williams
RELATED GROUPS
Small related groups meet informally:
Play Reading Group – meets to read modern or classical plays. Contact Jennifer Loacht (Tel: 01926 422515)
Poetry Group – meets to read and discuss poets and their work. Contact Trevor Humphreys (Tel: 07745859660)
Fiction Reading Group – meets to read and discuss the modern novel. Contact Trevor Humphreys (Tel: 01926 887838)
If you are a member of the Society and would like to join any of these groups please telephone the contact for the appropriate group.
PROGRAMME 2026 -2027
All meetings will be held at the Leamington Spa Baptist Church, 13 Chandos Street, Leamington Spa CV32 4RN, except for the January meeting (see below)
Tuesday 15th September 2026, 7-30 pm
A Bear, a Boy, and a Beginning
How A. A. Milne’s work inspired my development as a writer
Michaela Morgan,
Poet and children’s writer
Tuesday 13th October, 7-30pm
Shakespeare and the Supernatural
Dr Darren Freebury-Jones, FRHistS
In association with the Warwick Words Festival
Tuesday 10th November, 2-30 pm
George Eliot: Great Writer, Fascinating Life
John Burton, Chair,
George Eliot Fellowship
Tuesday 8th December, 2-30 pm
With Great Pleasure
Seasonal readings and song chosen by our members
Wednesday 13th January 2027 7-30 pm
At (and about) the Loft Theatre
Details to be confirmed
Joint meeting with the Leamington Society and the Warwickshire Society of Authors
Tuesday 9th February, 2-30 pm
“Even the trivial seems profound”: Seeing England through the eyes of John Betjeman
The Venerable David Meara, President of the Betjeman Society
Tuesday 9th March, 7-30 pm
Oscar Wilde: “Nothing succeeds like excess”
Dr Aaron Eames,
Oscar Wilde Society UK
Tuesday 13th April, 7-30 pm
Jane Austen: agreeable partners on and off the dance floor, from Mr Collins to Mr Knightley.
Nigel and Annabel Sharp,
Literary Society members and teachers of traditional dance
Tuesday 11th May, 7-30 pm
Christina Rossetti and the Catholic Revival
Emma Mason, Professor of English and Comparative Literary Studies, University of Warwick
Tuesday 8th June, 7-30 pm
Annual General Meeting and Book Sale
Followed by readings from “The Importance of Being Earnest”
Annual membership: £20-00
Joint membership: £35-00
Guests welcome at £5-00 per event
AFFILIATED SOCIETIES
We are affiliated to:
The Alliance of Literary Societies – which keeps us in touch with literary societies through the UK and delegates from our society attend their AGM each year. The Alliance also produces a very interesting annual journal.
Fulke Greville Society – we are a group member. The contact for this organisation is Anthony Astbury (Tel: 01926 492086)
Friends of the County Record Office – we are a group member and records of the Society from its inauguration in 1912 are held by the Records Office.
Speakers are also frequently drawn from other Societies including George Eliot Fellowship, John Masefield Society, the Houseman Society and John Betjeman Society.
The Society has connections with the Mary Dormer Harris Memorial Bursary, which exists to make financial awards to young students in mid-Warwickshire, especially with interests in drama, debating, international affairs and law. In 1916 Mary Dormer Harris became the first lady to address the Society and in 1917, she became one of the two first ladies elected as members. The Society has been instrumental in recruiting Trustees for the Bursary.
The Society is represented on the Blue Plaques Group of Royal Leamington Spa Town Council, and has been instrumental in the installation of a plaque to the nineteenth century American author, Nathaniel Hawthorne in Lansdowne Circus, and local historian, Mary Dormer Harris in Gaveston Road.
PREVIOUS NOTABLE EVENTS
In past years we have invited many speakers of note and often these meetings have been open to the general public. Details of some of these events are given below.
- 2002 The Keats/Shelley Association sponsored Gabriel Woolf to speak at the Pump Rooms on the poetry of Keats. Following another Lecture, our members visited the D H Lawrence Museum and Birthplace in Nottingham and the many surrounding places which featured in his novels.
- 2004 This was the year when the Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion, paid his first visit to Warwickshire to speak about his writing. The meeting was a great success.
- 2004 and 2011 Andrew Davies brilliantly revealed how he transformed the written word into pictures for the Television, illustrating both talks with computer images. The first concentrated on the work of Sarah Walters, the second on Jane Austen and the forthcoming ‘South Riding’.
- 2006 The then little known Sophie Hannah introduced the book she was just writing; little did we know how famous she would become. We also visited Lichfield, which was celebrating the 250th anniversary of the publication of Samuel Johnson’s dictionary.
- 2007 Pauline Prior-Pitt, a local poet who had moved to the Western Isles, returned to read from her new Compilation.
- 2008 A local group of Madrigal Singers delighted us with ‘Life in Elizabethan Times’ in poetry and music.
- 2009 We visited Prince Charles’s garden at Highgrove.
- 2011 The Very Revd John Irvine MA Dean of Coventry spoke on 400 years of the King James Bible.
- 2012 The Society Centenary was celebrated with tea at the Royal Pump Room Gardens.
- 2014 Joint meeting with the Leamington Society where Andrew Davies spoke on Dylan Thomas and adapting classics for television.
- 2018 Talk on George Orwell by his adopted son Richard Blair.
