This week’s Wollstonecraft lecture was held in the Gadesden Library as a suitable venue to learn about the Rare Birds Book Club. Rare Birds was set up by Rachel Wood in September 2017 as an online book club with two aims: to make reading enjoyable and to champion contemporary women authors.

Rachel explained her rationale for starting the business and the pitfalls and triumphs that she experienced along the way. Subscribers receive a wrapped, surprise book every month and have the opportunity to join the online Rare Birds forum to discuss the book with other readers. She explained that the rationale for selecting her books is that she looks for “only the very best pacey, interesting stories with gripping plot lines, amazing heroines, happy-ish endings”.

The Sixth Form agreed that this brand of bibliotherapy and its message of switching from Netflix to novels was particularly appropriate for Wellbeing Week.