The Beacon Book Club: All Creatures Great and Small

Join us for the Beacon Book Club.

November’s theme is ‘All Creatures Great and Small’.

The Beacon Book club will be an informal, friendly group of likeminded people who want to share their passion for reading and to discover new favourite books and make new friends.

Most of the suggested reading can be found at or ordered through the Cumberland Library Service as print books, e-books or audiobooks but we also encourage you to take the theme and browse through the library shelves, charity shops and independent booksellers to find something unexpected.

November’s Suggested Reading List:

An Immense World: How Animal Senses reveal

the hidden realms around us by Ed Yong.

Available from Cumberland Libraries.

This book is the perfect companion to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition here at the Beacon.

This is a book about animals as animals. Animals that can hear sounds in what seems to us like perfect silence, see colours in what looks to us like total darkness, and sense vibrations in what feels to us like complete stillness. Compelling, surprising and very readable.

Max the Miracle Dog by Kerry Irving

Available from Cumberland Libraries and Michael Moon Books.

Local Author Kerry Irving tells his inspirational and moving story, conquering injury, surviving the hardships of recovery and moving into a new future, all with the help of his extra-special spaniel, Max.

Max was later awarded the Order of Merit by veterinary charity PDSA for his outstanding contribution to society: the animal equivalent of an OBE, for acting as a true ambassador for the positive impact that animals have on mental health and wellbeing to thousands of people who are facing or have gone through hard times. A book everyone should read.

The Nation’s Favourite Animal Poems, compiled by Alex Warwick.

Available from Cumberland Libraries.

From a Shakespearian sonnet to Edward Lear’s comedic shorts, with all manner of styles and species in between, this book will surely include a poem or two that you will recall, and many more that will cause you to think, to laugh or to cry. A lovely book to browse through.

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell.

Various editions available from Cumberland Libraries.

NB This Edition includes additional information about the Author.

Although known commonly as a Children’s favourite, narrating the life-story of Black Beauty through his own eyes and experience, this seminal book, continually in print since its first publication in 1877, is credited with bringing great improvement to the treatment and care of horses over the years, as Sewell gave voice to those creatures that cannot speak for themselves. A timeless classic.

The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling – Penguin Classics Edition.

Available from Cumberland Libraries.

NOTE: Contains some negative cultural references from the time of publication, thankfully no longer acceptable today.

Definitely NOT the Disney version, the original Jungle Books are a collection of short stories and verse, first published in 1894.  Surprisingly absorbing, these little stories, a mix of the evident lived experience of Kipling and complete fantasy, are almost hypnotic in their rhythm and style – a totally captivating read.