Start here – join a slow book group for curious and creative readers
Start here – join a slow book group for curious and creative readers
Find out about our read-alongs and introduce yourself in the comments
Hello! I’m Simon Haisell, and this is Footnotes and Tangents, a space where I share my own writing and host slow reads of great books. In 2024, I am hosting year-long read-alongs of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace and Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell Trilogy. These groups are open to everyone, you can read at your own pace, and latecomers are very welcome!
Who is it for? For slow, curious and creative readers. Slow, because great books are too good to be rushed. Curious, because the more you ask of a book, the more it gives you in return. And creative, because each reader makes their own world in and beyond the story.
What is a slow read?
These are friendly and enriching group reads of great books. I set the pace and provide updates, resources and a space for discussion. But you choose your own rhythm and what you want to put in and take away from the experience.
I have written a beginner’s guide to our read-alongs and how to use this space:
War and Peace 2024
This year, we are reading Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, a chapter a day. There are weekly updates, a reading schedule, character plot summaries and daily chat threads. Please read or listen to the introductory post here:
How do I join?
(1) Subscribe to Footnotes and Tangents. (2) Switch on “War and Peace” notifications on the manage subscription page.
The Cromwell Trilogy 2024
This year, we are reading Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell trilogy: Wolf Hall, Bring up the Bodies, and The Mirror and the Light. There are weekly updates, a reading schedule, character plot summaries and further resources. Please read the introductory post here:
How do I join?
(1) Subscribe to Footnotes and Tangents. (2) Switch on “Cromwell Trilogy” notifications on the manage subscription page.
Endnotes
If you aren’t taking part in these read-alongs but would like to know about reading future projects, subscribe to my occasional Endnotes newsletter for news and updates.
Introductions
There is a lively and friendly community here at Footnotes and Tangents. The joy of slow reading brings us together, but we are a diverse bunch with different backgrounds and interests.
I would be delighted if you would like to introduce yourself in the comments below or connect with other readers. As an ice-breaker, here are a few things I would love to know:
The place in the world you are right now.
A book (or books) that made you who you are.
Something non-bookish that you are passionate about.
If you are planning to join either of our slow reads next year.
What (if anything) are you reading right now?
And let us know if you write or create anything online so we can find you in your favourite haunts.
Ten things about me…
I’ll leave you with ten things about me. Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you in the comments.
When I was about eight or nine, I found a door into another world. I've spent the last thirty-odd years working out whether to take that figuratively, or literally.
When I was ten, I had a folder with the words “History by Simon Cole” written on the front in big, bold letters. But at school, we only seemed to study the Vikings. And I was impatient for the rest.
My name is no longer Simon Cole. When I married, I took my grandmother-in-law's maiden name. Haisell. It’s rare and beautiful, and I’m very proud of it. Like all things perishable, we should look after maiden names.
Some years ago, I was bitten by a snake. I don't know what the snake gained from the experience, but I learned to look where I put my feet. Confined to bed, I read War and Peace for the first time. Tolstoy taught me to notice the sky.
I studied Social Anthropology and Sociology in London and finished a PhD at the University of Essex. Academia taught me how to finish things. But it didn’t love me, and I didn’t love it back.
I worked for some time as a baker in Oxford. I still bake my own bread. I’ve done sourdough and focaccia and all that jazz, but I am no purist: my everyday loaf is a no-knead Dutch oven recipe (a bit like this one) and it is delicious.
I lived in New York City for two years. Riverside Drive on the Upper West Side. While there, we did a lot of travelling and visited thirty states in all. My favourites? Mississippi, Utah, Vermont. What a wild country!
I moved to Newcastle-upon-Tyne five years ago. That’s the longest I’ve lived anywhere since I left Sheffield, aged nineteen. I’m now forty. Probably time to settle down and start a…
I am a father to two incredible humans: three-year-old Zachariah and ten-month-old Mariam. Zack and Mimi. They are teaching me how far we come, to get where we are going.
Favourite authors? Tolstoy, obviously. Mantel, inevitably. But also: Mervyn Peake, Ali Smith, Alan Garner, Tash Aw, and Robert Macfarlane. What do these writers have in common? Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it made good readers write great books.
Thank you so much for reading and for being part of this slow-reading adventure.
Your reading companion
Simon
You were bitten by a snake? So this is how Master Secretary captured you.
In answer to your invitation:
I am Bea and I am a textile artist, based in West London, originally from near Manchester. I learned to love reading in Stalybridge Library where, unbeknownst to me, a young woman was researching the French Revolution. Many years later, we exchanged emails about Stalybridge Library (among other things!)
Most of my textile work is inspired by Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell Trilogy, and I can imagine that I will be continuing to work with it for the rest of my life. Hilary was kind enough to be interested in and supportive of my work, and she liked a paper I wrote about the act of stitching in the trilogy.
The book that changed my life - apart from Master Secretary - was A Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley, which I read when I was eight, and I think I will talk about this in more detail in a post on The Thread of Her Tale. But the book that had the most dramatic impact was Giving Up the Ghost by Hilary Mantel. I read it while recovering from one of a series of operations for severe endometriosis - at the time (2003) it was one of the very few accounts of the condition. And that book led me to the rest of Hilary’s work.
I am Barrie, the 'Fables' part of 'Feasts and Fables'. I am the scribbler of words.
We live in rural France, gently working with the seasons to bring our neglected smallholding back to life. There isn't a single book I could nominate as 'the book that changed me' - I have read way more intentionally in recent years - some books pop up more than once - 'Consolations of the Forest' by Sylvain Tesson, 'Underland' by Rob Macfarlane, 'Still Life' by Sarah Winman ... the authors relish words as I do. I write flash fiction, often inspired by a painting or a photograph. Now I am finished with the 'world of work', I offer free encouragement, gentle mentoring, when folk ask for it.