Giving and receiving books as Christmas or birthday presents can sometimes be a bit dicey. Too often, you either get books that you have already read or ones on subjects that hold no interest. But last month, my father-in-law, Edmund Bowles, gave me two absolute winners. I am still reading the second one but the first, The Club by Leo Damrosch, had me captivated from start to finish. Its subtitle tells you all: Johnson, Boswell and the Friends who shaped the Age. Many works concentrate on just Dr. Johnson and his biographer, and indeed they are enough for many fine books, but this one goes further and explores the lives of their friends: David Garrick, Edmund Burke, Joshua Reynolds, Oliver Goldsmith, Edward Gibbon, Sheridan etc. These fellows were all members of a dining club where the conversation was as scintillating as the company. But Prof. Damrosch doesn’t stop there. Since the club was a male-only preserve, the author tells us about several ladies whose society Johnson relished. These include Hester Thrale and Fanny Burney. This is a glorious cast of often wayward but brilliant characters, and it is a joy to learn more about them. The book is also full of terrific illustrations.

It’s a fascinating book and I highly recommend it. Now I am about to start the other of my father-in-law’s presents, which is proving equally wonderful but, if you want to know what I think, you’ll have to wait until I finish it!