Welcome, I’m your host, Samantha Woolven.

Once a month, I’ll sit with a leadership book properly. Not to summarise it, but to form a genuine opinion. What holds up when the pressure is on. What collapses under scrutiny. What I’d really use with the leaders, and what I wouldn’t.

I bring that thinking to a small group of senior leaders, people too busy to read the book themselves, but not too busy to care about the ideas inside it.

That is the Bookish Club for Leaders.

I’ll read the books. You don’t have to.

Leaders join us globally, we have members from across industries including nuclear energy, finance, oil and gas, large retail, publishing, higher education, and local government.

You’re welcome too.

It’s not your usual book club, it’s not a summary service. It’s a time out from your organisation, a space to talk about challenges, and a community that sparks new ideas.

How the Bookish Club works…

We meet online for one hour on the third Thursday of every month.

That’s one hour of protected thinking time designed for senior leaders and people influencers working in high-scrutiny, high-consequence environments where the pressure for speed, accuracy and performance can too easily crowd out the human conditions that make excellence sustainable.

For you and your leadership, we use our book of choice as a lens to see more clearly. My promise is that I’ll read the book, so you don’t have. Guiding the conversation through live examples, contemporary research, and the real stuff (tools, insights, golden nuggets) I’ve used with leaders in the field.

You’re welcome here too, join us below.

"it’s like an interactive podcast...I appreciate not having to read the book in advance."

The group is small. The conversation is serious. People come back.

Join us in September -

Anchored, Aligned, Accountable by Aiko Bethea

Thursday 17th September 2026 - 12-13:00 BST - Zoom

Most leadership books tell you what good looks like. This one asks what you do when your values, your actions, and your impact stop lining up, and everyone can feel it.

Aiko Bethea calls that gap bullshit. I'd call it the thing most of us are trained to manage rather than name out loud. I'd call it the thing we all need to do something about. I'd call it leadership.

Come, join our Bookish Club on for Leaders this month as we take on Bethea's Anchored, Aligned, Accountable and test where her framework holds up under real organisational pressure, and where we want to try it out next.

This session is for senior people leaders who want a conversation with some spine in it, not a book review. It's time to think and space to learn; a protected hour where you can listen, share, and decompress with others grappling with similar challenges, opportunities, and an uncertain ground underneath them.

Hosted by Samantha Woolven, her promise is that she'll read the book, so you don't have to. Come having read cover to cover, come having not even heard of this book. This is an "interactive podcast" that helps leaders to decide what if they want to read the book, what they want to take from it, and how they might use the research in their realities.

“Perfect for anyone in leadership, The Bookish Club for Leaders distils the best thinking from business books into actionable strategies you can actually use the next day, all while connecting with peers who get the real-world challenges you're facing.

All delivered with a good dose of grounded reality."

Leader working in the nuclear energy industry

"As always, this has been perfect timing for me."

Leader working in the international development industry

“Always really valuable discussion points - you make us sit and think and you’ve created some fun out of business language that can be very complex."

Leader working in local government

“A refreshing hour of thought-provoking conversation and learning, without having to do the homework.”

Leader working in the maritime industry

“I'm in full admiration of what you've achieved with 'Bookish'. Well done you, it's a huge achievement."