Young athlone fan behind florence and the machines book club

Never meet your heroes they often say, but what about starting a book club for them?

Amazingly, one Summerhill teenager has done just that - starting and running the Florence and the Machine book club for the last three years since the tender age of just 15.

Over that time Leah Moloney has been lucky enough to meet her idol, front woman Florence Welch several times who she describes as “the most gracious, humble, sweet person ever”.

A super fan of the group fronted by Florence since she was 13, book lover Leah knew that the singer was a big literature fan too and always thought a Florence and the Machine book club would be a great idea.

Then back in July 2012, Florence Welch tweeted a picture of her outside a bookshop in Portland, Oregon and Leah said that it was now or never.
“You know I thought (when I saw the pic) I’m just going to do it, I’m going to start a book club for her,” she recalls, adding that she set up a Twitter account quickly gaining huge numbers of fellow Florence fans.

Leah settled on the title 'Between Two Books’ as a tribute to the band’s hit song 'Between Two Lungs’ and the idea that you are always between two books, either starting or finishing.

“Initially, my plan was to read books that she mentioned because she does that a lot. I never thought there was any way that I would be able to get her involved”.

“Amazingly, the very next day she found our Twitter account and she basically got in touch and said she would like to get involved. She recommended a book 'Opposed Positions’ by Gwendoline Riley and that’s how it all started,” outlined Leah, who has been running the club ever since.

From what seemed like a far-fetched idea, the club has really gone from strength to strength, now boasting over 20,000 followers worldwide on Instagram and another 10,000 on Twitter, with Florence recommending a total of 17 books since it first started.

Along the way, the club has also picked up some celebrity members too, most notably Lena Dunham, writer of TV show 'Girls’, singer Jessie Ware and actress Emma Roberts.

Leah told the Westmeath Independent that the Florence Welch has been hugely supportive of the club, giving it mentions on her Twitter, Facebook and even several shout-outs at her concerts around the world.

“I was in France in July at a festival, she was playing and she recognised me in the crowd and told everyone that she had a 'special guest’ and she then took me up on stage with her and explained the book club,” Leah recalls fondly, saying the whole experience of the venture and meeting her has been a “surreal and beautiful thing”.

Now preparing to start studying Psychology in Trinity College, Dublin, Leah has vowed to always find time to run the club no matter how busy her schedule gets, enjoying the interaction with fans and finding books she would never have read, save for Florence’s recommendations.

Luckily, she now has a little help in running the venture from other fans Heather Hale from Canada, Abbie Whitehead in the UK and Kiera Hood from the US.
“It’s something she (Florence) feels passionate about and I feel passionate about it too. If it wasn’t for this, I wouldn’t have a had a chance to meet my hero,” the former Our Lady’s Bower student enthused.

With Electric Picnic just days away, Leah was hugely excited about the band’s headliner in Stradbally and another big concert in the 3Arena, Dublin on September 10 meaning she will see her favourite band twice in less than a week!

While the Athlone teenager doesn’t know if she will get the popular singer on this occasion, she knows how lucky she has been since the book club first began.

“It’s more than a dream come true because you wouldn’t dream about things like this happening,” she said.

Find the Florence and the Machine Book Club (The F+tM Book Club) at
@BetweenTwoBooks on Twitter or on Instagram at betweentwobooks.