Behind the Books | RJ Verity

Free book club kits with discussion questions, historical context, a look at Leeds’ lost cinemas, a themed cocktail and playlist, an author Q&A and a printable bookmark. Contains spoilers – read the novel first.

Book club kits

Join the conversation

I’m happy to join a book club discussion by video call when the diary allows. Get in touch and tell me when you’re meeting.

The real history

Cinema, class and the North

From Foyer to Flicker: How Cinemas Enchanted Audiences Before the Lights Went Down

When the Lights Came On: Cinema, Class and the Stories We Cling To

Life in the Aisles: Usherettes in 1920s Britain – and in Poole of Light

Picture Palaces for the People: Oscar Deutsch and the Dream That Lit Up a Nation

The Golden Age Begins: Cinema in the 1920s

The Historian’s Projectionist: Splicing a Novel from Fragments of Britain’s Cinema Past

Jem’s Leeds: the real-world settings that inspired Poole of Light

Broadway, Hollywood and the crossing

Bright Lights and Midnight Frolics: The Real World Behind Daisy Briscoe’s Story

Dorothy Mackaill: The Inspiration for Bright Light’s Daisy Briscoe

The Berengaria: A Transatlantic Crossing

The law, the Bar and the sixties

The True History of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act

Why, and how

Where the Story Began: Why I Wrote The Poole Legacy

A Meditation on Historical Fiction

Why Literary Festivals Matter More Than Ever

Reading with a group?