While we all went our separate ways professionally, our love of film, literature – and long dinners spent discussing both – kept us together. In April 2016, we launched The Bluestocking Club, inspired by the original three Bluestockings of the 18th century – the pioneering Frances Boscawen, Elizabeth Montagu and Elizabeth Vesey – who hosted literary salons in London for the likes of Samuel Johnson, Ada Lovelace and Fanny Burney.

The Bluestockings are:

Nomadically-raised and part of an enormous family, Katy has always escaped into books. A recent convert to travel writing (especially women explorers), she’s currently following the footsteps of travel writer Paddy Leigh Fermor, in a Slightly Foxed-supported literary hike that will eventually take her from Rotterdam to Istanbul in memory of a friend. When not walking, Katy has been the mastermind behind some of the most imaginative PR campaigns of recent years, from the Man Booker Prize to Philip Pullman’s long-awaited Le Belle Sauvage. Her favourite literary adaptation is A Room with a View, for both its setting, its aesthetics and its wry look at English manners. Preferably accompanied by a Dirty Martini.

Part-Danish Rosie (a gold-card-carrying member of the Tall Girl Club) was brought up in a house where music was a family member. She is the ultimate polymath, switching between a job programming events at Waterstones Tottenham Court Road, brushing shoulders with the best contemporary artists at arebyte gallery in Hackney Wick, and producing weird and wonderful sound art projects. She can often be found cycling around East London, dispensing sage advice and good company to friends far and wide. She also makes a mean Old Fashioned. Her favourite literary adaptation is Blade Runner; she brings the sci-fi suggestions to the table.

Born and raised in East Jerusalem, Nuzha began her literary career in the editorial department at Picador. True to her Bluestocking roots, she then moved seamlessly into the world of academia, currently working on her PhD at Oxford, whilst keeping one toe in the publishing pool as PA to Picador poet Don Paterson. Whilst fiercely intelligent, Nuzha is probably the most affable person in the room and the go-to girl for a comedy recommendation. She loves a Pisco Sour, and her favourite literary adaptation is Little Women, for its cast of bookish female characters.