We started our reading groups back in 1994, supported with some financial assistance from the Arts Council and YHA and a lot of help from Rachel van Riel, of Opening the Book. Three reading groups, all a mix of staff and public, emerged from the initial sessions. We came up with a formula for organising them which has proved to work very successfully; because the demand has just grown since then, we have never felt the need to change it. What follows relates to our six groups devoted to contemporary fiction.  Our poetry, history and genre fiction groups have developed along lines which reflect their varying subjects and memberships.