The groups are run by The Reader Organisation, a charitable social enterprise working to connect people with great literature and each other through shared reading. We are funded by Guys and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation and our reading groups bring people together, weekly, to read great stories, novels and poems aloud, and share personal responses.
Our shared reading groups give you a place to relax. Everything is read aloud each week- you don’t need to read anything in advance. Simply drop in, have a cup of tea and enjoy listening to a good story or poem. There’s no pressure to read or talk if you don’t want to.
Reading for pleasure has many benefits, and our shared reading groups for those with chronic physical health conditions have been shown to:
- Improve mood and well-being
- Helps to reduce awareness of chronic pain
- Help to build social networks
- Enhance self-worth
Many of our group members describe how reading together provides a break from everyday worries and thoughts, with group member sayings:
‘It’s like going on holiday without packing your bags’.
‘Coming to the reading group is like therapy. When I go home from here I have a spring in my step’.
This reading group will be part of an exciting research project carried out in partnership with Goldsmiths University. We aim to investigate how shared reading can influence peoples’ health and sense of well-being; you’ll find out more when you come to the group.
Find out more
To find out more, come to a Shared Reading Group taster session on:
Friday 3 July at 10am or at 12pm
at The Hetherington Group Practice, 18 Hetherington Road London SW 4 7NU
Alternatively, please contact us by email at h.baker@gold.ac.uk or fionamagee@thereader.org.uk or call us on 020 7296 4286.
