ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the history, growth and development of colonial clubs in the British colonies of Jamaica, Malaysia and Nigeria. It identifies both the core and peripheral criteria of clubbability the settler elite utilized to measure the clubbability of the indigenous elite. It also examines the impact of ‘club talk’ and the role books and reading played in this selection process. This chapter provides a profile of the ‘proper sort’ and the extent to which European women were deemed clubbable. It analyzes how the management committees of subscription libraries served as a vetting tool for the ‘select people’ to determine the clubbability of a member of the indigenous elite.
