I'M just home from my mid-week book club inspired to write my column.

I’m one of tens of thousands of Lancastrians who attend one or two meetings each week – more than support all the nation’s football and cricket matches put together.

You don’t hear too much about us because we don’t have world cups, though the joy is often as vigorous, though not quite vuvuzelaic. Some of us meet in thousands. More likely, the three or four dozen groups in your own town will likely be in the hundreds or even intimate tens.

This week we all learned that our book is even a best-seller in China, which is odd because it used to be banned or burned in the Cultural Revolution.

Apparently things changed 21 years ago last month. Remember Tank Man’s futile freedom protest in Tiananmen Square, a lone student shuffling bravely before the advancing armoured vehicles? Of course, it all failed miserably and the despairing Chinese turned elsewhere for hope.

They found it in the book we study at our meetings, and now an estimated 90 million Chinese meet in similar groups to ours. China’s changed so much that even four million copies of the book were openly printed in the country last year.

They too have found that God’s Good Book, the Bible, is worth coming out for. And, of course, it’s not just about a book. It’s a love letter from God who says he wants a deep, intimate relationship with each of us from here to eternity.

Your local book centres are open every Sunday. Check one out!