Books / Bristol Books
Bristol’s thriving book club scene
With Hay Festival choosing Bristol for a recent ‘After Hours’ event, and the International Booker Prize holding an evening of readings from shortlisted writers in conjunction with the festival Translated By, Bristol, the city is firmly on the map as a destination for readers.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the success of the independent bookshop scene; in all corners of the city, indies are thriving.
As you would expect, many of these shops host their own book clubs. Heron Books organises five groups, including one focused on poetry; Max Minerva’s has two groups for translated and contemporary fiction respectively, and The Haunted Bookshop hosts a club for fans of fantasy, gothic horror and ghost stories.
Discussing Cecile Pin’s ‘Wandering Souls’ at an informal book group meetup – photo: Bristol Feminist Book Club
At Storysmith, there are no less than seven book clubs, all of whom get together at the end of each year for some “copious inter-book-club gossiping”.
Kingswood’s Lost in the Reads hosts one club for Romantasy, and another for Thrillers. They promise “no awkward icebreakers. No homework. No pressure to sound clever. Just great books, friendly faces, and the kind of conversations that make you lose track of time in the very best way”.
Meanwhile, over at Bedminster’s Willway Yard, A Very Small Bookshop more than makes up for its compact size in its fast-growing community – hosting the VSBS Book Club, alongside a Queer Book Club and a newly announced Collage Book Club, in conjunction with Willway neighbours Studio Pachira.
A Very Small Bookshop book club reads for April 2026 – photo: VSBS
Beyond the booksellers, Bristol is also home to numerous book groups to suit every taste and demographic.
From the Weirdo Reading Group to Inkling, the city’s self-styled “sexiest book club”, the Climate Change Book Club and the Feminist Book Club, literary lovers of every stripe are being well-served.
Youth mental health support service OTR Bristol has its own book club for 16-26 year olds, meeting alternately online and in person, with free books supplied.
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The Rebel Book Club focuses on non-fiction. And for those after company, but not necessarily conversation, there is the Bristol Silent Book Club – offering a safe space for book lovers to get together for some side-by-side reading.
Paul Wright is one of the organisers of Bristol Book Gang, a free group organised on meetup.com that is welcome to all “rebels, book lovers, dreamers and those who love discussing interesting books”.
Why a ‘gang’ and not a club? “Well Book Clubs are cosy, quaint places…”, he contends. “The Book Gang is meant to be a place where we read challenging titles, across different cultures and then come together to discuss it all. EVERYONE is welcome.”
The Book Gang challenge: read a book with a blue cover – photo: Paul Wright
Hosting a meeting every two to three weeks guarantees that there are fairly frequent opportunities to participate, given that many members won’t be in a position to read every book, or make every date. It’s also a chance to try reading new genres that you may not typically be drawn to.
Although they are usually held in a pub, some events will be unique to the book in question; members regularly arrange theatre and cinema visits, or might convene over a meal in a Turkish restaurant to talk about a novel by a Turkish author, for example. They have even organised trips abroad, to Delft and Pompeii; in fact Wright now runs dozens of literary themed adventures across the UK, Europe and Africa, through his organisation Books in Places.
Book Gang discussion – photo Paul Wright
“The discovery that the book itself is far less important than I expected”, he admits. “Book Gang succeeds not because I pick perfect books every time, but because it attracts a diversity of people with interesting ideas and insights, not just into the books but into all sorts of other stuff.
“And that is why people keep coming back, and why it has spawned friendships and relationships beyond the room.”
Main photo: Storysmith Books
Read next:
- Book club shows how stories can bring people together
- East Bristol book club focuses on climate literature
- Bristol Girl Book Club: the informal space to discuss books and spark new friendships
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