Here at Oakham Nub News, we are working closely with the team from the Rutland Book Club to bring you monthly instalments of our book club feature.

Laura Ray began running Rutland Book Club during the pandemic, and arranges monthly meet ups for other keen readers to discuss their chosen book of the month.

The upcoming book is In Memoriam by Alice Winn.

About the book:

A gripping, heart-shattering love story between two soldiers in the First World War.

It's 1914, and talk of war feels far away to Henry Gaunt, Sidney Ellwood and the rest of their classmates, safely ensconced in their idyllic boarding school in the English countryside. At seventeen, they're too young to enlist, and anyway, Gaunt is fighting his own private battle - an all-consuming infatuation with his best friend, the dreamy, poetic Ellwood - not having a clue that Ellwood is in love with him, always has been. When Gaunt's German mother asks him to enlist as an officer in the British army to protect the family from anti-German attacks, Gaunt signs up immediately, relieved to escape his overwhelming feelings for Ellwood.

The front is horrific, of course, and though Gaunt tries to dissuade Ellwood from joining him on the battlefield, Ellwood soon rushes to join him, spurred on by his love of Greek heroes and romantic poetry. Before long, their classmates have followed suit. Once in the trenches, Ellwood and Gaunt find fleeting moments of solace in one another, but their friends are all dying, right in front of them, and at any moment they could be next.

An epic tale of both the devastating tragedies of war and the forbidden romance that blooms in its grip, In Memoriam is a breathtaking debut.

How to join the book club:

Rutland book Club be discussing this book on Wednesday 24 April at 7.30pm. This month the group will be meeting at The Wisteria in Oakham.

Anyone is welcome to join the meetings, as well as the Rutland Book Club Facebook Group, where readers who cannot attend the meeting are still welcome to discuss each monthly title.

The book can be bought online or locally from Walkers Book Shop which is on the High Street in Oakham.

The monthly book will be shared here each month.

In the meantime, see you at The Wisteria on 24 April 2024.