London Literary Salon

Focus on 2026 Travel Studies - https://mailchi.mp/litsalon/focus-on-travel-studies

https://www.litsalon.co.uk/2026/01/29/campaign-to-protect-views-immortalised-in-virginia-woolfs-to-the-lighthouse/

"... snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, on the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried."
Ever been curious about how the Salon works? There is a great (as in, low time commitment, great reading, lively facilitators) opportunity coming up for a reading of two short stories (well, one is more a novella than a short story but still) from James Joyce's Dubliners collection. and it's Joyce so everything is there-- humour, pathos, love, death, s*x, music, banquets, corpses, paralysis, gnomons, family issues...PERFECT for pre-winter holiday reflections!
From the website description:
The stories in Dubliners (1914) provide a rich feast through which to taste the world of James Joyce. In both The Sisters and The Dead, the stories which bookend the collection, Joyce seeks flashes of illumination – epiphanies – when clarity is suddenly attained, not in occasions of great victory or of obvious importance, but in mundane moments when pieces fall into place and profound truths are revealed.
Nothing – NOTHING – in Joyce is casual. Each image, reference, description carries symbolic resonance. Career Joyce scholars may try to align all the references, but I like W. Tindall’s attitude:
“The text is not a system of mathematical equations but a flexible relationship of possibilities..."
William York Tindall, A Reader’s Guide to James Joyce
Come and explore the possibilities with us! Virtual study so if you can make the timing work, you can Zoom in from anywhere
3 Sessions: Tuesdays Nov 25th, Dec 2nd & 9th
17:30-19:30 GMT
And if the cost gives you pause, we have subsidised places available...just message me.

James Joyce short stories from Dubliners - The Dead & The Sisters Three-meeting live online study of James Joyce's short stories The Dead and The Sisters, led by Toby Brothers and Paul Caviston.

If you haven't yet seen it, check out our November newsletter:

November news November is here. Nights grow longer as the hours of light dwindle further each day. We have ideas to brighten the winter darkness in the run up to the holiday season and into the first months of the New Year.

American fiction this October: from Henry James to Percival Everett via Ernest Hemingway, we're ranging wide and free this month (and Hemingway is pay-what-you-want charity donation!) Check us out! American fiction this October: from Henry James to Percival Everett via Ernest Hemingway, we're ranging wide and free this month (and Hemingway is pay-what-you-want charity donation!) Check us out!

We are in today's Financial Times with Horatio Clare writing about our recent Moby Dick Afloat travel study. Check out our website for details of next year's study (and much more): https://www.litsalon.co.uk/Studies/moby-dick-afloat-in-2026/

Gerard Manley Hopkins_THE WINDHOVER -

Gerard Manley Hopkins_THE WINDHOVER Over the course of two hours we will study THE WINDHOVER in depth, look at its form and construction and, through repeated readings, unlock the secrets of this acclaimed poem.

There was a long piece in Sunday’s Observer about Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway including quotes from Toby and a reminder of our Cinema Museum showing of The Hours this Friday 13 June, Dalloway Day. Tickets still available: https://ticketlab.app/event/30982 #/, join us if you can!

WALT WHITMAN: Poet for our Times? . "I celebrate myself, and sing myself, for every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you." Join us to explore Whitman’s vibrant verse. BOOK NOW: https://www.litsalon.co.uk/Studies/walt-whitman-poet-for-our-times/ -32782 Starts Wed 4 June on Zoom

Walt Whitman: poet for our times? Photo of Walt Whitman by George Collins Cox, Public domain,

https://mailchi.mp/litsalon/may_2025_newsletter

Lots of poetry, prose, art, cinema and travel studies in our May newsletter!

Favourite films - https://mailchi.mp/litsalon/may_2025_newsflash1 - join us!

Favourite films A quick reminder of our next two ‘Art of Film’ studies and, as we continue to celebrate 100 years of Mrs Dalloway, a very special showing of The Hours at the (also very special) Cinema Museum!