Straw poll

    Our Cornflower Book Group has so far read only novels (albeit a goodish range of them) and one collection of short stories, but should we perhaps branch out a bit and include (as Lindsay suggests) poetry and plays?

   I've been wary of choosing anything of the sort before as I've felt it was the novel that was the natural territory of the group, but why not go further? If I were to suggest, say, A. E. Housman's A Shropshire Lad (does not the chap on the cover of that edition look awfully like 'someone in high office?!) or Tom Stoppard's Arcadia, would you all be besieging libraries and booksellers up and down the land in your eagerness to get hold of copies, or would you be remembering urgent appointments far from any internet connection on the discussion weekend in question?

   So, two questions: firstly, would the thought of poetry or a play turn you off or on? Secondly, if you're still 'on', do you have any views on either book I mentioned above (or can you offer an alternative)?