Book group questions – Tell Me How This Ends

Photo by Barry Gonen

I’ve put together some starting-point questions for groups that have read Tell Me How This Ends.

Since my book was selected as a Radio 2 Book Club pick, I’ve been invited to chat to lots of local groups and readers have come up with some fantastic questions. So, the truth is, I can’t take the credit for all of these!

I hope these questions help start some lively, interesting discussions for you.

• How accurately do you think the book represents attitudes to women and people of Irish descent in London the 1970s?

• What role does humour play in the book?

• Henrietta knows she is different from other people, especially when she puts on her ‘mask of indifference’. What do you think lies behind her quirky ways – nature or nurture?

• If Annie had never heard about the Life Stories Project from Mia, how might her final months have played out?

• What do you think Henrietta learned from Annie?

• And, in turn, what did Annie gain from her friendship with Henrietta?

• Did you identify with one character more strongly than the other(s)?

• Annie might not have had an entirely good life, but do you think she had
  a ‘good death’?  

• How do you imagine Henrietta’s life continuing after we leave her on the platform of St Austell station in Cornwall?

• Did the theme of grief strike a personal chord with you?

• If you were writing your own Life Story, what are three key events that you would include? Is there anything you would be tempted to leave out?