News

The Charlotte M Yonge Fellowship AGM and Autumn Meeting will take place on Saturday 21st November 2026 . This year we will be meeting entirely online beginning with the AGM at 2.00 pm.  All are welcome to attend the Autumn Meeting, which starts at 3.00 pm. We’ve   been fortunate to secure as  our main speaker, Moira Redmond, long-standing blogger and writer on clothes, speaking on   Bonnets, Crinolines and Mourning: what we learn from the clothes in Charlotte M Yonge. Moira’ s blog, Clothes in Books, combines, in her own words, “impeccable research & epic frivolity”. She has also taken part in literary festivals, given talks to other literary societies, and writes for the i newspaper. We are delighted to welcome her. We’re also looking forward to the ever entertaining  contributions from members which will follow.  If you would like to attend, please use the contact form to let us know and you will receive further details.

This year we’re going to the historic town of Wantage, home and parish of Charlotte Yonge’s friend, the distinguished High Church clergyman the Revd William Butler.  After a local lunch, we’ll be shown round Butler’s parish church and have a short tour of other Butler-related sites in Wantage. Non-members wishing to join us should get in touch via the “contact us” form.

We will be discussing Beechcroft at Rockstone

The next online book group will discuss dress in Yonge’s novels: how does dress delineate character? How do descriptions of dress contribute to the narrative?

The AGM and Autumn Meeting will be on 22nd November at Open Ealing. We’ll be discussing blended and step- families in CMY’s work, including The Young Stepmother which is a favourite with many of our members. . Our keynote speaker will be Hannah Rosefield, a writer and researcher with a keen interest in blended families in all their forms. She’s well qualified to speak on this topic as she   has  a Ph.D. in English from Harvard University, where she wrote a thesis about stepmothers in Victorian literature and culture, focusing on works by writers including Charlotte Mary Yonge, Elizabeth Gaskell, Mrs Henry Wood and Henry James. There will also be short contributions from members and plenty of opportunities to chat about all things Charlotte Yonge. Guests are welcome at the Autumn Meeting and if you’d like to attend please let us know via our Contact Us page.

The November book group meeting will discuss Chaplet of Pearls

The next book group will meet on Zoom on 2 August 2025 to discuss A Review of Nieces and Come to her Kingdom.

The next book group will discuss The Young Stepmother

For more information on the book group see this page

8 February 2025 Henrietta’s Wish 10 May 2025 The Young Stepmother 2 August 2025 A Review of Nieces and Come to Her Kingdom 8 November 2025 The Chaplet of Pearls 13 December 2025 Discussion on dress in CMY novels