By our Book Club Member Mr David Castle
For our last Book Club event of this year, we choose the Women of Troy by Pat Barker.
With this book, we were taken into the entrails of the wooden horse sitting outside Troy in pre-biblical times – loaded with Greek warriors. This book is the successor to an earlier work by Barker retelling the ancient myth in modern terms from the perspective of women – including the famous Helen. It was not a good time to be a woman.
As usual, it was a lively discussion with many points of view expressed. The consensus was that the ancient myths and legends, on which some of us were brought up, are well worth preserving today and that books like this – from such a gifted author – serve as an introduction to modern audiences of stories that should be preserved for all time and all ages. Telling time-honoured stories like this from the perspective of the women involved is quite unique. Our children and grandchildren need to be made aware that the myths and legends of all countries are well worth preserving.
Most voted the book 6/10 and our famous “three” word summaries included “women lose war”, “brutality, loss and pain” and “vanity, war and women”.
We are deep in the process of selecting new books and inviting potential new members to join our Sub-club, so please contact the team at events@tattersallsclub.org with any suggestions for books you would like to read and discuss, and also if you would like to join our Book Club.
In addition to regular monthly meetings, we are proposing to have special functions with invited authors and book launches. All enquiries and suggestions are welcome.
The Book Club looks forward to a fantastic year in 2023.
