Book group titles and dates for 2025
9 February 2025 Henrietta’s Wish 10 May 2025 The Young Stepmother 9 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
9 February 2025 Henrietta’s Wish 10 May 2025 The Young Stepmother 9 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
The Christmas special meeting of the CMYF book group is on Saturday 14 December 2024 at 3 p.m. GMT, and will discuss Food and CMY. Contributions are invited of memorable meals in the books, CMY herself and food, or any aspect of 19th century meals that anyone cares to share
The next online book group meeting will discuss Under the Storm.
The online book group meeting on 11 May will be the first of two to discuss The Pillars of the House.
The Spring meeting will be an outing to the Museum of the Home (formerly the Geffrye Museum) in Hoxton, and will take place on Friday, 19th April. Details of how to sign up for this meeting will be included in the Spring Mailing to members.
On 24 June 2023 the Charlotte Mary Yonge Fellowship joined forces with the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society for a day in Otterbourne and Hursley to celebrate the 200th birthday of CMY. We are making the publication to accompany the day available (https://charlottemyonge.org.uk/bicentenary-celebration-booklet/) in the hope that the booklet will enable readers to follow in CMY’s footsteps through Otterbourne and Hursley, and increase their enjoyment and understanding of her works. The booklet includes trails around the two villages with information about buildings CMY would have known.
We are delighted to announce the publication of Charlotte Mary Yonge: Writing the Victorian Age edited by Clare Walker Gore, Clemence Schultze and Julia Courtney. This collection of essays (many by CMYF members) celebrates Yonge’s literary achievement and explores her work in context. CMYF members will receive a publisher’s flyer in 2023 offering a substantial discount on the book.
Charlotte M Yonge will feature prominently at a conference on Victorian Transformations hosted by Leeds Centre for Victorian Studies in collaboration with CMYF on 24-25 May 2023. The call for papers closes on 15 January 2023. This will be a hybrid conference at the Weetwood Hall Conference Centre and online.
The book group on 10 December 2022 will be a discussion on CMY and Christian Names – her great work, plus her use of names, plus Are You Called after a CMY character?
In 2023, to celebrate CMY’s bicentenary, we shall be discussing some of her most significant works: 11 February The Little Duke (her first real historical story – not counting Kenneth – and her first serial in The Monthly Packet 13 May Scenes and Characters (the very first of the linked novels) + The Two Sides of the Shield (its sequel) 12 August (the day after The Birthday!) The Heir of Redclyffe (her best-known work) 11 November The Carbonels + Founded on Paper (her story based on her parents’, and her own, early years in Otterbourne, with its sequel, dealing with the same village in the 1890s, thus bracketing CMY’s own life) 9 December A light-hearted discussion on Who You Would Cast as any CMY characters in a (sadly unlikely to happen) film or televisation of any of her books. All the books are available online. Some are very well known and others (particularly Founded on Paper) may be unfamiliar