Whether working online or in-person, our approach is cooperative rather than didactic. Our facilitator-led meetings are contemporary and down-to-earth. You don’t need specialised knowledge or a background in literature to enjoy a Salon study. Many participants will be reading the authors for the first time, all that’s required is a willingness to read carefully, listen thoughtfully and be open to new and sometimes challenging ideas.

Studies range from one-meeting ‘intensives’ to literary journeys lasting many months or even years, but typically they run for six to ten weeks. We also offer a number of travel retreats to locations around the UK and Europe.

Since Covid-19 forced us into the virtual realm, we have moved our studies from meeting in person in and around London to working primarily on Zoom. We have developed ways of reproducing the in-person study atmosphere online and one of the few positive benefits of the global pandemic is that we have now been joined by readers from all over the UK and the wider world.

Group sizes are deliberately small – usually 5 to 11 participants – so that the atmosphere remains relaxed and personal. There is space for everyone to both contribute and sit back to reflect on their personal response and connection to the work – participants often find that the literature illuminates their own life experiences.

At the start of the first meeting we usually invite each participant to introduce themselves and say a few words about what brings them to the study and whether they have past experience of the author or text we are reading (this is very informal and friendly).

Ahead of each meeting, participants read a portion of the book (typically 30 to 50 pages, depending on the work, but we aim to keep reading assignments manageable so that studies can be fitted into busy lives). It can deepen appreciation and understanding of the text to read selected passages aloud, so you may be invited by the facilitator to read a page or two to the group. Participants take it in turns to read aloud, informally, over the course of the study and initially the facilitator may ask for volunteers who would like to read.

Guided by the facilitator, over two to three hours of a Salon meeting, a group gives individual and collective thought to the author’s ideas. We work through unclear passages and explore the intricacies of plot, language and meaning, as well as examining the wealth of connections to broader social and historical movements. Along the way, we provide support with notes and questions to help deepen appreciation of these great books and the worlds they reveal.