On Wednesday 28th January 2026, from 7.30-9.30pm, Stroud Radical Reading Group will host a discussion of The Matchbox Girl, to mark Holocaust Memorial Day. This is a book written by a local (as well as multi-award-winning) author, Alice Jolly. The book is described as a “beautiful, stunningly ambitious novel telling the story of a young girl’s battle for survival and search for the truth in occupied Vienna”. It explores themes of neurodiversity, fascism, collaboration, and resistance. Our discussion will follow Community Solidarity Stroud District’s annual memorial ceremony on Sunday 26th January, which this year will be addressed by Alice Jolly among other speakers.

We will meet at Redz Youth Hub, 6 Threadneedle St, GL5 1AF. Entry is free and anyone interested in the book is welcome – you don’t need to have read it to join us. See below for more information.

Below in our resources section you can find a link to buy the book at a discount, and free text, audio/visual resources. There is also more information about the book and Stroud Radical Reading Group events.

Entry to the reading group session is free and everyone is welcome – you do not need to have attended previous sessions, and we do our best to make the sessions welcoming to people who have not been to reading groups or similar settings like university seminars before. We encourage people to read as much of the book as possible, but you are welcome to attend to listen to the discussion without reading any of it.

About The Matchstick Girl

“I began by thinking that the story I wanted to tell was primarily about Dr Asperger – and it is. But what I discovered is that he worked with an amazing team of people who have been largely left out of the historical record. They lived through so much. Anni Weiss and Georg Frankl were amazing pioneers of autism research, but they were Jewish and had to flee Vienna and make new lives in America. Sister Viktorine stayed working at the hospital even though she knew that appalling decisions were being made. Another key character, Dr Josef Feldner, decided to hide a Jewish boy in plain sight, simply introducing him to everyone as ‘my nephew.’.. For Adelheid [the book’s narrator], the growing chaos in Vienna is terrifying. She loves order and the Reich seems to offer her that, but she has failed to realise that she personally is particular vulnerable to the brutalities of the Nazis.” – Alice Jolly, taken from this Bloomsbury interview

About Alice Jolly

Alice Jolly is a novelist and playwright. Her writing has been awarded the PEN/Ackerley Prize, an O Henry Prize and the V. S. Pritchett Memorial Prize, and been longlisted for Ondaatje Prize and the Rathbones Folio Prize. She teaches on the Creative Writing Masters at Oxford University, and has taken part in and been arrested as part of a Just Stop Oil action.

Resources

• Buy The Matchstick Girl from The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop – RRP £18.99, £15.19 with discount (saving £3.80). To get the 20% discount: Look at your “basket”, and enter the “couponcode” 26stroudradical. Pick up your book from their Nailsworth, Tetbury or Chalford shops, or get books delivered to your door for £3.50 postage.
• Alice Jolly’s website
• Watch Alice Jolly introduce the book in this 2 minute Facebook video
• Listen to an 18 minute free Audiobook preview of The Matchbox Girl (embedded below)
• Read an interview with Alice Jolly on website of the publisher, Bloomsbury: “This is a story which could not have happened in another time or another place”

About our events

Stroud Radical Reading Group events are free to attend, though we will make a collection to cover venue hire costs – please bring some cash if you can afford it (a few pounds would be great).

We try to create a comfortable discussion space for everyone, including people who have not been part of a reading group or been to university. We do not want the sessions to feel like school – the idea is that everyone has something to contribute, even if primarily through finding the discussion texts difficult and having questions with other attendees can attempt to answer.

To ensure marginalised people feel welcome, we encourage care and thoughtful contributions that respect people’s identities and lives. We are an LGBTQ+ inclusive and anti-racist space.

Anyone is welcome to listen to the discussion, though we encourage contributions only from those who have read at least some of the book we are discussing.

About the venue

The venue for this session is Redz Youth Hub, a hub for organising, creativity, and community building. It’s a free space for young people to host their own events, workshops, and meetups. They’ve been hosting sessions by Mutiny: Stroud’s Youth Assembly and The RYSE – the Radical Youth Space for Educations.

Redz is in central Stroud, close to the train station and bus station, with nearby stands to lock bikes, and parking for cars nearby at Fawkes Place or Church St car park. There is step-free access to the ground floor where we will meet. There is a toilet, and some comfortable seating as well as basic folding chairs. Please get in touch if you’d like to get more of an idea of what the sessions are like or if you have any accessibility needs.

There is an opportunity for more informal discussion after the session in the Ale House pub (around the corner) for anyone who wants to continue chatting after 9.30pm.