The recent television adaptation of Atwood’s dystopia has overshadowed the quality of her actual book. Come and let’s explore what she really said in her futuristic novel and its implications. We will also look at her 2019 sequel which was listed for the Booker prize at the time of our going to press.

Jane Mackay's love of literature is founded in a deep value for the great minds that have arisen throughout the human story. Because of their writings, we today are given profound insight into the universal truths of human life.

In her own words -

"I love the freedom to talk about the great writers in terms of the essence of time and place. I look at their backgrounds, what they read when they were young, their early writings - for the seed within their earlier work often develops in their later work - and always I'm looking for the configuration of their own particular genius.

Great writers carry an intensity about the place of their birth and the age in which they lived, but what they say is universal - it escapes time and place and applies to us all. I feel privileged to be given access to such great minds though their writings."