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 (25th May 2025)
To All Members and Friends of the Leaminton Literary Society
The Society's Annual General Meeting to be held on Tuesday 10th June at 7-30 pm at the Oddfellows Hall. Copies of Agenda and Minutes can be obtained by emailing me.
Please pass any apologies, nominations or items for Any Other Business to me by Monday 2nd June and I will forward them to Graham Cooper, our Vice- Chairman.
You are invited to bring along any books that you wish to donate to the book sale on the night.
On a separate matter, does anyone have copies of James Joyce's "Dubliners" that I could borrow for a few weeks for use with the Fiction Reading Group?
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 costst £15.00 (single) and £25-00 (Couple)
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 - Fiona Williams (Tel: 01926 429174)
Hon. Treasurer - Robin Taylor (Tel: 01926 337575)
Committee Members - Annabel Sharp, Nigel Sharp
RELATED GROUPS
Small related groups meet regularly on an informal basis:
Play Reading Group – meets to read modern or classical plays. Contact Barry West (Tel: 01926 422515)
Poetry Group – meets to read and discuss poets and their work. Contact Trevor Humphreys (Tel: 01926 887838)
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 2024 -2025
All meetings will be held at the Oddfellows Hall, 22 New Street, Leamington Spa CV31 1HP
Tuesday 10th September, 7-30 pm
Shakespeare's First Folio
Dr Darren Freebury-Jones
Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
Tuesday 8th October, 7-30 pm
Two History Writers in Conversation
Sir Andrew Hamilton, President of the Leamington Literary Society,
talks with Simon Wilcox of the Society of Authors
In association with the Warwick Words Festival
Tuesday 12th November, 7-30 pm
Victorian Parlour Poetry
An improving evening of recitation and song!
You are invited to attend in Victorian dress
Tuesday 10th December, 2-30 pm
Dylan Thomas at Christmas
Geoff Haden, Chair of the Dylan Thomas Society
Thursday 9th January, 7-30 pm
Joint Meeting with the Leamington Society and the Society of Authors (Warwickshire)
The Past in Fact and Fiction
Two local authors, Sheila Robinson/S C Skillman and Fran Hill
will share their experiences of putting the past into fact and fiction
Tuesday 11th February, 2-30 pm
'Don't Let the B*******s Grind You Down':
The Defiant Individualism of Alan Sillitoe's Anti-Heroes.
James Walker, Nottingham Trent University
Tuesday 11th March, 7-30 pm
Lord Byron: Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know
Dr Andrew McInnes, Edge Hill University
Tuesday 8th April, 7-30 pm
“A Passage to India”
New Perspectives on E. M. Forster’s Novel of Empire
Dr Chris Mourant, University of Birmingham
Tuesday 13th May, 7-30 pm
Classic Science Fiction
Dr Allen Stroud
Chair of the British Science Fiction Association
Tuesday 10th June, 7-30 pm
Annual General Meeting and Book Sale
Followed by a performance by Immanuel’s Ground, West Gallery Quire
Annual membership: £15-00, Joint membership: £25-00
Guests welcome at £2-50 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.
