The Articles Book Club

First Friday of the month, National Library of Scotland, George IV bridge, Edinburgh

Sep 26, 2025

On the 5th of September I organised a book group at The National Library in Scotland, The Articles Book Club

“Would you like to join me at 2pm on Friday 5th September at Scotland’s National Library for my new book group, “The Articles”? The format is a bit different from usual book groups - everyone reads a book they already own, and tells the group about it.
I have a large pile of unread books which I don’t make time to get through, even though I want to. So, the aim of The Articles is to read 10 of your own books in a year. The title and number are a play on words.
If someone uses Scots to call you “an article” it isn’t a compliment - you are being called awkward, outspoken, troublesome - someone who just winnae wheesht.
And, Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights says: “Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority.”
This means we have the right to read, to speak and to share ideas - without interference from publicly funded bodies. In some parts of the world, women are banned from reading, writing, or speaking therefor my every unread book by my bed is a symbol of my freedoms.
That’s why The Articles Book Group has no assigned text. Bring any book from your own pile, any subject and any genre. Read from it, tell us about it, recommend it - or don’t - practise your Article 10 rights with others who value them, share ideas and book recommendations.
National Library of Scotland, George IV bridge Edinburgh Friday 5 September, 2- 4pm. All welcome. Look for this “The Articles Book Group” sign and my smiley face. Perhaps after we have read, spoken and shared we can visit their “Dear Library” exhibition… Please share

My motivation was partly annoyance with the National Library of Scotland who had removed a book nominated for inclusion in their "Dear Library"exhibition because of staff pressure. A book I had been flattered to be invited to contribute to was regarded as beyond the pale by people who had, I assume, never read it.

The Women Who Wouldn't Wheesht is an anthology of essays about the short period of time in Scottish politics during the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, curated by Susan Dalgety and Lucy Hunter Blackburn, published in 2024 and I’m thrilled to have been included in a group of women I find, without exception, hashtag inspirational.

The library asked the public to nominate books which had influenced their lives for the exhibition marking its 100th anniversary. TWWW was nominated but the NLS’s LGBT+staff network thought the book might cause them "severe harm", so our book was removed from the exhibition. Naturally, many people were surprised that a library would censor a book, and I’ll admit to raising an eyebrow because the NLS holds copies of Mein Kampf*, but my essay about not-flashing Parliament was beyond the pale?

Susan and Lucy met with the library and reported it was a “constructive meeting” - and I thought “ha, ha, ha, I bet it was.” I aim to never on the receiving end of those women’s considered, polite and astute assessment of all the ways I had gone badly wrong…

So, on the 5th September fifteen of us met in the (rather nice) cafe of the National Library. Everyone brought a book to share and it was WONDERFUL - though, it did not solve my issue of “too many books to read” because I have added to my “ooooh, that sounds interesting…” list.

The book club isn’t a protest, after all, people meeting in a library to talk about books cannot be described as subversive, can it? The list of books brought is below, it turned out there is a common theme...

One woman even brought The Women Who Wouldn’t Wheesht as her book. Tracy Edwards is a woman who understands the unexpected and unfair impacts of not wheeshing.

It was a lovely couple of hours, there was a lot of laughter, a few tears, a poem, excellent coffee and cake and it was all very uplifting.

One of the suggestions was to make sure that the library has titles written by women about our lives available in audio, digital and printed forms. You can request and suggest books from any library, but if you want to do that in Edinburgh use this link: suggest books for purchase

and this one to reserve:

reserve books from Edinburgh libraries

Some of us visited the exhibition afterwards and enjoyed seeing TWWW in its rightful place:

and messages of both encouragement and annoyance from exhibition visitors:

We are meeting again on Friday 3rd October at 2pm, and I’m delighted to say that the library staff have helpfully reserved us space to the side of the main staircase.

If you are free next Friday and fancy talking about books or having a coffee and cake with us then do come along. Everyone is welcome and you can bring whatever book in any genre and any format that you would like to share.

I’ll bring badges and bookmarks and pop into the exhibition to make sure our book is still in place. The Dear Library exhibition runs until April so it’s worth keeping an eye on it as, perhaps I’m cynical, but, this feels familiar, like the wobbly beginning of another long game…

I’ll list the books we read below. My advice is to pay it absolutely no heed, because you’ll only land up adding to your unread book pile…

*to be fair, you can’t just wander in and pick up writings of totalitarian propaganda off the library’s shelf, if you want to read Mein Kampf you have to request access.

You can explore Edinburgh Libraries collection of LGB-and-quite-a -lot-of-T+ books here.