Having failed to find something like this here already, I came to the conclusion that if I wanted to combine heavy drinking with vague chat about politics/political history in a book group setting, I'd have to organise it myself.

Here's what we're doing:

* The books will have more of a political history focus rather than straight politics. The subjects will be fairly liberal (in the British sense of the word) but relatively uncontroversial (so no "Blair is a war criminal" polemics). Also, no Nazi Germany (not for controversy, just because it's done everywhere all the time).

* The periods and concepts discussed will be in the 20th and 21st centuries

* We'll meet once every 6 weeks on a Tuesday night in a pub that does snack type food somewhere in zones 1-2 (prob the top right of zone 2).

* Choose the books for the session after next (so we'd choose the first 2 before the 1st meeting, the 3rd book shortly after the 1st meeting- would be done by consensus)

First book is The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front 1915-1918 by Mark Thompson. We'll meet to discuss it in six weeks from now on 01 December. The next one is likely to be Chinese Whispers: The True Story Behind Britain's Hidden Army of Labour, but I'm open to suggestions.

Why that book? I (and I presume most other people) know next to nothing about Italy's role in WWI and why it was even involved, not getting involved until 1915 and never really under threat until it joined in it seems. The other interesting aspect is that Italy had been united as a country less than 100 years before and a lot of people didn't really have a concept of it as a nation. And yet, as a proportion of the population, more Italians troops were killed than British.

Who are we? We're a bunch of people in our mid 20s, some of us did politics degrees but most of us didn't. None of us are members of political parties: this isn't a Labour/Lib Dem talking shop, some of us have voted Tory. Who do we want? Well, anyone who reached the bottom of this really without getting bored or repelled.

The group will be limited to 10 members and we're about halfway there just to warn you. Please don't take that personally.

My flatmate has suggested that I sound more human at the end by saying "come along, it will be lovely". She's right. You should come. And it will be lovely.

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