Friendship is taken as read when you're part of a book club

Book clubs can inspire busy adults to rediscover a love of reading, but they are also places to meet, gossip, socialise and drink tea and coffee, says Paula Burns.

When I set up a book club with my friends earlier this year, I romanticised what it would be like. I fancied that it would take on the guise of the French salons of the 17th and 18th centuries, where the reading of a book led to enlightening discussions on philosophical topics.

I thought back to the lectures of my English literature degree and how every sentence and paragraph of a text was open to interpretation. So much was implied. Words would be covert for an author’s hidden sexuality or love for another.