What is all the fuss about James Joyce? Ulysses – first published in February 1922 and immediately condemned by many as obscene – remains at the top of many lists of ‘all time best’ novels, but is also notoriously daunting, a book that even experienced readers and writers fail to conquer. His final novel, Finnegans Wake, is perceived as equally intimidating.

In all his writing, Joyce interrogates the form of fiction as biography. As he progresses from the stories in Dubliners to the novels Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses and, finally, Finnegans Wake, his experiments with language become increasingly daring, relying less on narrative logic than on the connections, associations and synchronicity of words. Profound truths are revealed and illuminated not by heroic or dramatic gestures, but in the ordinary acts of everyday life.

To explore the words, themes and linguistic pyrotechnics of James Joyce in the company of a diverse group of other curious readers, all of whom are also struggling to discover meaning, allows each reader to enrich their own understanding and appreciation. Reading the work is demanding, but it is also hugely rewarding and entertaining. Together we laugh, we express our frustrations, we question meaning and purpose, and we discover great depth in the language and vision of the writer.