shortlist 2008
St Michaels Church Group, Yorkshire
This group was set up two years ago, originally by members of a local church, but is open to anyone to join, who loves books. It consists of six women and four men ranging in age from early thirties to one eighty year old member, and from a variety of backgrounds and lifestyles. Among its members are a builder, a teacher, a social worker, a pharmacist and the rest are retired. They take it in turns to meet at each others houses, and as they live in a low income community they made a policy decision to get their books from the library so that everybody can join in.
Members said
'We are so chuffed at being shortlisted for the Penguin/Orange Broadband Reading Group Prize. We are just a group of ordinary people whose common link is the love of books, (good, bad and sometimes to be honest the absolutely dreadful!) So it just goes to show how far our shared passion can take us.'