Reading group united at Gladstone's Library in Hawarden

Gladstone's Library, Hawarden

By Rhian Waller - Gladstone's Library PR and marketing

Gladstone's Library has evolved into a meeting place for many people. A lot of groups have a long association with the Library. However, members of the FE Reading Circle, which recently celebrated its one-year anniversary, encountered the Library - and each other - for the first time. This is the story of how they came together and why they chose to travel to Flintshire.

"We are all spread out," said Chloë from Liverpool, who is one of the closest members of the FE Reading Circle to Hawarden. The others came in from other corners of England and Wales, covering hundreds of miles to reach the Library. Many of them had never met face to face before.

The reading circle, which offers its members space to discuss works linked to FE teaching, formed online in 2021, just after the second major Covid lockdown.

Essentially, they set up the group, became firm friends and eventually arrived at Gladstone's Library because of a single Tweet. They chatted about their meeting as they relaxed on the sofas in the Gladstone Room.

The FE Reading Circle in the Gladstone Room (Chloë Hynes front right and Kayte Haselgrove front left).

Chloë said: "I was working toward Advanced Teacher Status and had to do reading for that, but I realised I wasn't reading - unless it was Zog with my baby. I put a Tweet out about struggling with reading and loads of people responded they were feeling the same."

Kayte, who masterminded the Gladstone's Library meet up, said the online reading circle has become more than just a reading circle. Its members are now firm friends.

Chloë added: "Some of us have only met face-to-face today. I just thought it would be two of us (Chloë and Kayte). I didn't think, when the group began, that so many of us would be here a year later."

So why, when the reading circle is thriving online, did the group decide to cover hundreds of miles to mark their anniversary at Gladstone's Library?

Kayte said: "People kept posting pictures of the Library. I saw them and thought: 'ah, the smell of books!', and that was it. I wanted to go."

Chloë added: "We thought let's just go to a lovely library for our first birthday. So, we did."

Will the FE Reading Circle come back to Hawarden?

"Oh yes," said Kayte. "The chocolate cake was great. Next time we'll all book overnight rooms and bring dressing gowns monogrammed with the reading circle logo."

There was good-natured laughter at this suggestion, but stranger things have happened. After all, a single Tweet brought them together.