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 (24th August 2025)
To All Members and Friends of the Leaminton Literary Society
Below is a copy of the Society's speaker programme for the year commencing 9th September and details of this year's membership.
If you would like to join or rejoin the Society please contact me and I will forward an application to you.
As previously, all meetings will take place at the Oddfellows Hall, 22 New Street, Leamington Spa CV31 1HP
I look forward to seeing you at September meeting
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)
Vice Chairman - Graham Cooper (Tel: 01926 426942)
Hon. Secretary - David Howe (Tel: 01926 491859)
Membership Secretary - Vacancy
Hon. Treasurer - Annabel Sharp (Tel: 01926 889785)
Committee Members - Nigel Sharp, Fionna Williams
RELATED GROUPS
Small related groups meet regularly on an informal basis:
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 2025 -2026
All meetings will be held at the Oddfellows Hall, 22 New Street, Leamington Spa CV31 1HP
Tuesday 9th September, 7-30 pm
A Literary Tour of Oxford’s Waterways
Mark Davies of the Lewis Carroll Society
Tuesday 14th October, 7-30 pm
The Tale of Yde and Olive
Storyteller and academic Daisy Black weaves medieval narrative with modern folk song to tell the tale of Yde,
who dresses herself as a knight and cuts her own paths to freedom.
In association with the Warwick Words festival
Tuesday 11th November, 2-30 pm
Wilfred Owen: the Life and Works of the Great War Poet
Dr Paul Norgate of the Wilfred Owen Association
Tuesday 9th December, 2-30 pm
With Great Pleasure
Seasonal readings and song chosen by our members
Thursday 15th January, 7-30
A Burns Supper
We celebrate the work of Robert Burns with readings, a live band, dancing and supper with wine and a dram.
Tickets £10-00 for a Braw Scots Nicht to remember.
In association with the Leamington Society and the Society of Authors (Warwickshire)
Tuesday 10th February, 2-30 pm
From Literacy to Lit Soc: an Epic-Laden Journey through Books
The personal odyssey of David Howe, Society Secretary and retired inspector of schools
Tuesday 10th March, 7-30 pm
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
The multi-faceted Robert Louis Stevenson
Rebecca Lonergan, teacher of English literature at Myton School
Tuesday 14th April, 7-30 pm
Dr Johnson and Friends: “A man should keep his friendship in constant repair.
Colin Greatorex, the Johnson Society (Lichfield)
Tuesday 12th May, 7-30 pm
Patrick Leigh Fermor, Travel Writer and Soldier
David McClay, the British School at Athens
Tuesday 9th June, 7-30 pm
Annual General Meeting and Book Sale
Followed by a celebration of theatre programmes, based on a personal collection from the 60’s to the present.
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.
