Recommended! The influencers who changed how we read
Book forthcoming… published June 26th 2025.
Format: Hardback PP: 300. ISBN: 978-1-7391047-5-7. Price: £14.99.
Recommended! | Holland House Books
‘A deeply researched, stylishly written piece of narrative history, full of detail and telling vignettes. The organisation – around the five characters at the heart of the Book Club – works wonderfully, giving an emotional richness to the story.
An enormous pleasure to read, while also deepening immeasurably my understanding of the literary business of the interwar period out beyond the well-walked squares of Bloomsbury.’
Dennis Duncan, UCL, author of Index, A History of the
‘In this dynamically narrated and archivally-rich study, Nicola Wilson brings book history to life as she takes us behind the scenes to show how Britain’s first book club made its choices. Wilson argues for the importance of the Book Society as an under-acknowledged powerhouse in the shaping of 20th-century literary tastes. Those tastes belonged of course to specific individuals, each with their own personal story, and Wilson shows us the intimate friendships; networks and connections; and at times bitter disagreements behind the book choices.
The story of the Book Society is one that also addresses some of the most pressing issues of our own literary moment – in this era of influencers and algorithmic recommendations, whose stories are told? Whose are chosen for splashy promotions and wide distributions? What does it mean to be an ‘outsider’ in a cliquey literary marketplace? A must-read for today’s ‘busy reader,’ this book is a triumph of imagination, historical research, and storytelling.’
Claire Battershill, University of Toronto, author of Circus
‘This is essential reading for all those who love books and literature. The story of the Book Society, the club that in the 1930s opened up reading and book buying to the man in the street, is of course the main focus, and how good to see Hugh Walpole’s pivotal role in it fully recognised. But as Nicola Wilson takes us through the Book Society’s 40 year history, setting the story against a backdrop of unfolding national and world events, she displays in the process her truly astonishing depth of knowledge of 20th century literature. This is no dry academic tome but a tremendously readable and insightful account of a fascinating story. It is filled with engaging anecdotes and numerous quotations, many of which have not been published before, all gleaned from her wide-ranging research. This book is a very impressive achievement indeed.’
Nicholas Redman, Chairman, Hugh Walpole Society
Before Reese Witherspoon and Zoella’s Book Clubs, there was Oprah Winfrey and Richard and Judy. And before them, there was Hugh Walpole and the Book Society. This is the story of Britain’s first celebrity book club and the judges who changed how we read. For forty years between 1929-1969, the Book Society chose from the best of world literature to mail out one book a month – fiction, history, travel, or biography – to subscribers in over thirty countries. The judges established what a good ‘book club book’ looked like: well-written, entertaining, informative; worth investing your time and money in, not too highbrow nor obscure. Making book-buying easier, they started a revolution. And the legacy of their taste is still with us on bookshelves today.
Hugh Walpole, J. B. Priestley, Sylvia Lynd, Cecil Day-Lewis, and Edmund Blunden were the literary influencers of their day; household names whose personal lives, affairs, and politics informed their recommendations, mixing the personal and professional; social history with the domestic; love, disappointment, and war. They made global bestsellers with books that saw readers through Empire and the growth of fascism and antisemitism, the Great Depression, Spanish Civil War, and World War Two.
Recommended! The influencers who changed how we read explores how a group of writers shook up the interwar book world, changing forever how we buy and think about books.