To coincide with Refugee Week (June 14-21) and reduced lockdown restrictions, we’re planning a special, non-zoom, CWR Book Group in Montpellier Park!

It’s a chance for us to meet up in person on 15 June and enjoy being together, and of course, talk about books! Many of us will be meeting for the first time.

We’ll be reading Refugee Tales, Volume I, edited by David Herd.

Poets and novelists retell the stories of individuals who have direct experience of Britain’s treatment of refugees and its policy of indefinite immigration detention. Presenting their accounts anonymously, as modern day counterparts to the pilgrims’ stories in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, this book offers rare, intimate glimpses into otherwise untold suffering.

There are a range of stories exploring many different perspectives and exposing the cruelty at the heart of Britain’s asylum system. 

Volume I has stories by Chris Cleave, Ali Smith, Inua Ellams, Patience Agbabi and many more.

If you can, please do buy the book, as the proceeds go to Kent Refugee Help and the Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group.

However there are copies in the Gloucestershire library, and a couple of the stories are also available to read online:

Read The detainee’s tale by Ali Smith: 'I thought you would help me' | Books | The Guardian

Read World Refugee Day: The Lorry Driver’s Tale, as told to Chris Cleave (irishtimes.com)

We look forward to hearing what you think about these stories on 15th June!

Meet by the bandstand – we’ll find a good spot to sit ourselves down with plenty of space once we’re all together. Do bring something to sit on, and your hand sanitiser and masks just in case!