Our Regular Groups
Something for everyone
Connecting with our customers and friends around books, poetry, stories, is what makes us so much more than ‘just’ a bookshop. Most of our groups have been running for many years and we enjoy building lasting and meaningful relationships with people as we share relaxed coffee and croissants with poetry once a month, or get together each week to closely explore a classic text. We love the cycle of Mums (or grand-parents) turning up each Friday morning with their babes-in-arms, then waving goodbye to them four years later as they bravely head off to school.
No matter what the group, it’s a matter of deeply held principle that newcomers are always made very welcome, whenever there are openings. We understand that people’s circumstances change: you may have just moved here, or be newly retired, or suffered a bereavement, or just be looking to extend your interests. Whatever your reason, you can be confident that the group will be warmly appreciative of your presence. (Currently the Slow Reading Group Reading Group and the Storytime group are both fully subscribed, but we do hold waiting lists.)
All our groups are really lovely in special and indefinable ways, so why not just come along and try them out?
Slow Reading Group
WEDNESDAY MORNINGS
10.30am – 11.30am
The Slow Reading Group meets every week to discuss their current book of choice – please note: it can take a very long time to get through a book this way, so you do need to be patient and willing to go deep into and around the text. We do make sure it’s always an excellent choice!
How it works is that you’ll do the reading at home, from your own copy of the book (available from the bookshop with a 10% discount). We’ll provide a big pot of coffee and a plate of delicious biscuits from the Deli next door. You then gather round each Wednesday morning and discuss the chapter. The group opens up to new members each time a new book is started (approximately once a year or so, depending on the length of the book!) Previous books include Middlemarch, The Power and the Glory and The Plague.
This group is currently at full capacity, but let us know if you would like to be added to the waiting list and we will make sure someone contacts you in good time for joining at the next opportunity.
£5 to include coffee and biscuits.
*If you are looking for somewhere to share your own poetry writing, try Shrewsbury Poetry (upstairs in the St Nicholas café/bar on Castle Street, Shrewsbury) on every first Thursday evening of the month. They have a Facebook page @ShrewsburyPoetry.
Poetry Breakfast at Tea on the Square
SECOND THURSDAY OF THE MONTH
9am – 10am £7 Doors open 8.45am, BARROW STREET, MUCH WENLOCK, TF13 6EN
* Please note – Poetry Breakfast at Aardvark Books will be a week early on 19 December *
Poetry breakfast is a friendly, informal gathering where we read our favourite (published*) poems on a given theme in the first section, followed by a breakfast of coffee or tea, croissants or toast, followed by another session of reading. You are very welcome to bring poetry to read aloud, or if you prefer, just sit back and relax and we will read to you! The themes are always wide-ranging, and open to interpretation, and you’ll be amazed at the variety of poems we share. By the way, we don’t analyse, we just enjoy!
All very welcome: it’s a fabulous way to start your day. Come early to get a seat!
Themes for 2019
January 10th: A Feeling for Snow
February 14th: Telephones
March 14th: Mothers and Daughters
April 11th: Islands
May 9th: The Singer and the Song
June 13th: Fathers and Sons
July 11th: Arrivals and Departures
Poetry Breakfast at Aardvark Books
FOURTH WEDNESDAY OF THE MONTH
9.30 – 10.30am £8 Doors open 9.15am BRAMPTON BRYAN, nr KNIGHTON SY7 0DH
Poetry breakfast is a friendly, informal gathering where we read our favourite (published*) poems on a given theme in the first section, followed by a French breakfast followed by another session of reading. You are very welcome to bring poetry to read aloud, (we like short-ish poems, please!) or if you prefer, just sit back and relax and we will read to you! The themes are always wide-ranging, and open to interpretation, and you’ll be amazed at the variety of poems we share. By the way, we don’t analyse, we just enjoy!
All very welcome: it’s a fabulous way to start your day. Come early to get a seat!
Themes for 2019
23 January: Short days, long nights
27 February: The madness of love
27 March: Take some more tea, said the March Hare to Alice
24 April: A Moveable Feast
22 May: Blossom by blossom the spring begins
26 June: So is mine eye enthralled
7 July: Aardvark Poetry Day
24 July: Midsummer madness
* Please note – Poetry Breakfast at Aardvark Books will be a week early on 19 December *
*If you are looking for somewhere to share your own poetry writing, try the regular Ludlow Open Mic event at The Blue Boar, Ludlow, 7 for 7.30 start, £3 in the hat as you go in, usually first Tuesdays. Contact Jean Atkin for details.
We need to talk about books
SECOND THURSDAY OF THE MONTH
11am to 12.30pm
WENLOCK BOOKS
£7.00 to include coffee & cake. Booking essential.
This new group is a reading group with a difference. Instead of reading a set book, just come along with a book you’ve read and enjoyed recently and tell us a bit about it! We’ll enjoy a good cup of coffee, cake from the Copper Kettle, and general bookish chat. Email the Bookshop if you’d like to join us.
StoryTime
11am – 12pm
* Please note – Storytime is now fully subscribed, but you can join our waiting list HERE
On Friday mornings we give over the upstairs of our shop to the marvellous Sue Dunne and her bag of tricks. Think real snow for stories about snowmen, knitted elephants, steering wheels for pretend cars – the list is endless! Sue has enjoyed many years of working with children in special needs schools and she brings her love and passion for story, song and children to this hour of fun. We love to watch the children enjoy the magic of story and we revel as they grow in confidence and make new friends. (That goes for the parents and grand-parents, too!)
We hold our StoryTime session every Friday (join the Facebook StoryTime group for up-to-the-minute information re cancellations for weather, holidays etc).
The Small Print!
– £3.00 per family
– The session begins promptly at 11am and late admittance is not possible
– Although we continue through school holidays, the group is for under-5’s only, we are very sorry we can’t accommodate older brothers and sisters
Find Us
Address
12 High Street
Much Wenlock
Shropshire TF13 6AA
Opening Hours
Open 10am – 5pm, Monday – Saturday
Telephone
01952 727877