The Feminist Book Club – October 2026

House of Books & Friends are delighted to announce that we are hosting the Feminist Book Club, with facilitator Kate Feld. Taking place monthly, this will be a space for people of all genders to discuss feminist books. In September, we will be discussing Gaining Ground by Joan Barfoot. It will take place Wednesday 21st October at 6pm.

Tickets

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About the book

I swear I loved them all, and I did the best I could. And then I left them, left all of it.

Abra has a perfect-seeming life as a wife and mother: until one day, she walks away, leaving only a note asking her family not to look for her.
In a woodland cabin, her new life alone begins. There are no mirrors, no clocks, no memories: just the squirrels breathing in the forest, and silence of vegetables growing.
Years later, a young woman arrives, and the past-flashes begin. Daughter? A strange word. Is this her? And what will this mean?

Joan Barfoot’s Gaining Ground is a both a provocative meditation on living on your own terms and an exquisite work of art. It calls to anybody who has ever wanted to escape – who has asked what it costs to be wild, to be sane, to be free.

About Kate

Kate Feld is a writer who grew up in in the U.S. state of Vermont and now lives outside Manchester, UK. She writes poetry, short fiction, essays and prose that sits between forms. Her writing explores the natural world, mythology and the unconscious, often taking the form of lyric narratives that both interrogate and celebrate lived experience. Her work has been published widely in journals and anthologies including The Stinging Fly, The Letters Page, Hotel and Tolka. She is the founding editor of UK creative nonfiction journal and reading series The Real Story, and lectures in Journalism at the University of Salford. Her chapbook of poetry and photography, Deeryard, is forthcoming from Death of Workers Whilst Building Skyscrapers.