Hachette Livre

Hachette Reading Group Guides

Welcome to our Reading Group guide for The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce by Paul Torday. We invite you to consider and discuss the following questions when reading this book:

  1. What were your first impressions of Wilberforce? Did they change greatly as you read the novel?
  2. Apart from the medical condition, why do you think Wilberforce can’t help looking up?
  3. What drew Wilberforce to Caerlyon?
  4. ‘Maybe you are completely empty inside. Is that why you have to fill yourself up with wine every day?’ Is what Catherine says to Wilberforce true? Do we find out why?
  5. Why does Wilberforce see fewer and fewer stars?
  6. ‘They all did this to me in the end: all those who should have loved me betrayed me.’ Do they? If they don’t, what does this belief tell us of Wilberforce?
  7. How does the author deal with the theme of responsibility? Wilberforce thinks ‘It was so unfair.’ Was it?
  8. What did you think of the unusual structure of the novel? Did you mind knowing what would happen? What did you gain and what did you lose through knowing?
  9. What was the significance of the drilling platform in the mist?
  10. ‘His sharp tongue had its effect on me, too.’ What effect did Wilberforce’s childhood have on him?
  11. Who is the woman in Wilberforce’s dream?
  12. Why does the undercroft get bigger to Wilberforce?
  13. ‘I am nobody. I am anybody. I can choose to be whom I like.’ Can he? Does he?

Current Reading Group Titles

  1. The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce by Paul Torday
  2. The Disappeared by Kim Echlin
  3. The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite by Beatrice Colin
  4. Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker
  5. The Other Hand by Chris Cleave
  6. Testimony by Anita Shreve
  7. Home by Marilynne Robinson
  8. The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti
  9. City of Thieves by David Benioff
  10. Remembering The Bones by Frances Itani
  11. The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton
  12. Lies by Enrique de Heriz
  13. Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaardner
  14. Sorrows of an American by Siri Hustvedt
  15. Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
  16. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
  17. The Sisterhood by Emily Barr
  18. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
  19. The Rose Labyrinth by Titania Hardie
  20. The Return by Victoria Hislop
  21. A Small Part of History by Peggy Elliott
  22. A Carrion Death by Michael Stanley
  23. Scapegallows by Carol Birch
  24. Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
  25. Prisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat
  26. Radiance by Shaena Lambert
  27. Rose of Sebastopol by Katharine McMahon
  28. The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell
  29. Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott
  30. The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle
  31. Golden Age by Tahmima Anam
  32. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
  33. The Keep by Jennifer Egan
  34. The Saffron Kitchen by Yasmin Crowther
  35. Pirate’s Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson
  36. The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani
  37. April in Paris by Michael Wallner
  38. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday
  39. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
  40. Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet
  41. Red River by Lalita Tademy
  42. The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox
  43. Rosetta by Barbara Ewing
  44. The Mathematics of Love by Emma Darwin
  45. The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld
  46. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell