8 November 2019
On Tuesday 5 November, ten Sixth Formers, Mr Abbott and Miss Kaaber-Gore took a trip to Whitgift School. No, not to look at the peacocks or to admire the boys - we were there for the first session of the Woldingham and Whitgift Book Club.
During the preceding weeks, we had all read Normal People by Sally Rooney, a young adult novel. We were all eager for the session as we had so much to share about the book and, to our delight, the Whitgift boys shared the same excitement. After a slightly hesitant start, everyone soon felt very comfortable and hands were constantly shooting up. I was overwhelmed by the amount of intriguing opinions and different interpretations of the book. Some people felt that the book lacked emotion, while others felt that it was the author’s artistic intention to allow readers freedom to empathise with the characters and establish their own feelings.
Everyone stated their opinions and justified them and the conversation was nowhere near finished by six o’clock when we had to leave. At the end of the session, the teacher from Whitgift told us that he had come with a list of questions to prompt us with but he hadn’t had to ask any as our discussions flowed rapidly and we were never short of a point to address. I’ve never been part of a book club before, but I’ll definitely be going back. We can’t wait to host the Whitgift boys next time round and we are very grateful to Miss Kaaber-Gore for organising this!
Canaan, Upper Sixth