Topping & Company Working Group

Meeting on the last Wednesday of every month, the 'Topping & Co Working Group' will explore the rapidly changing character of work in the modern world.

From automation and AI to gig work and productivity culture, the working world is not what it used to be. Join the Topping & Co Working Group, where we will be exploring the dreams, nightmares, hopes, and frustrations of the modern workplace. We will be discussing novels set in the convenience store, university classroom, and newspaper advice column office. We will also read philosophical works on the fate of craftsmanship in the modern world, whether we should reassert our right to be lazy, and what the future landscape of employment looks like. Whether you are a student imagining your future, a retiree looking back on your career, or someone navigating their way through the ever shifting 21st century workforce, join us for a glass of wine and an evening of stimulating chat (out of earshot of any bosses).

The book group is hosted by our bookseller Michael, a former philosophy professor who has had more jobs than he’d like to admit.

For the fifth book of 2025, we are reading Ingrainedby Callum Robinson.

he eldest son of a Master Woodworker, Callum Robinson spent his childhood surrounded by wood and trees, absorbing craft lessons in his father’s workshop, playing amongst the sycamore, oak and Scots pine that bordered his home. In time he became his father’s apprentice, helping to create exquisite bespoke objects. But eventually the need to find his own path led him to establish his own workshop; to chase ever bigger and more commercial projects, to business meetings, bright lights and bureaucracy, to lose touch with his roots. Until the devastating loss of one major job threatened to bring it all crashing down. Faced with the end of his business, his team and everything he had worked so hard to build, he was forced to question what mattered most.

Blending memoir and nature writing at its finest, Ingrained is an uplifting meditation on the joys and challenges of working with your hands in our modern age, on inheritance, community, and the beauty of the natural world.

Reading Group Structure

Ticketing: Each place is £5, which can be redeemed against a copy of a reading group book.

Frequency: Each reading group will meet once a month, on a set day of the week. You do not need to commit to one group, or every meeting! Just book for those you're interested in each month, and we hope to entice you back for another one.