An adult literacy publishing scheme credited with helping thousands of adults to learn to read is to be axed after failing to secure funding, despite almost 5m books being handed out in prisons, hospitals and workplaces since it was launched in 2005.
Publishing fast-paced, entertaining books by authors such as Andy McNab, Mark Billingham, Ann Cleeves and Dorothy Koomson, Quick Reads was established to appeal to the one in six adults with reading difficulties, as well as those who rarely pick up a book.
The 100 plus titles published by the scheme in 2005 were loaned from libraries and distributed to readers in prisons, colleges, NHS hospitals and adult-learning organisations.
In 2016, Mars Galaxy withdrew support and last year Arts Council England funding ended.
According to the Bookseller, this year’s titles were funded by publishers and private donors, including Gail Rebuck, who launched Quick Reads. The Reading Agency charity has run the initiative since 2014. Its chief executive, Sue Wilkinson said: “For the past 18 months, we have sought ongoing support for the programme, but in this difficult funding climate, we have sadly been unable to secure the long-term investment needed to continue the scheme.”
Authors, booksellers and publishers have reacted with concern to the news. Harriet Evans, whose Quick Reads novel Rules for Dating a Romantic Hero, was published in 2014, said: “There are swathes of adults across the country who have been left behind and simply can’t read as well as they should … The shame they feel is huge.”
Likening the move to the closure of public libraries, she added: “Alan Bennett said closing libraries is like child abuse: you are denying a child whose life might be transformed by it access to a new world and information. I feel this is the same, and it is part of a larger picture about the government’s attitude to library and education funding.”
Ann Cleeves, author of the bestselling Vera and Shetland series, said: “They’re good stories and they don’t talk down to the reader.” The crime writer, whose book Too Good to Be True was published by Quick Reads two years ago, added: “Before they came along, books [for adult literacy] weren’t terribly exciting. They have made a real difference.”
Veronica Henry said her book for the series, A Sea Change, was “one of the things I am most proud of. I met quite a few emerging readers after writing it, and to see someone’s eyes shine when they describe reading their first book is incomparable. And when I saw 87-year old Ursula Shepherd, who had been illiterate all her life, read from the first page on This Morning, I was moved to tears.”
The Society of Authors chief executive Nicola Solomon warned: “We cannot afford to lose … a brilliant campaign [that shows] people reading is enjoyable and need not be intimidating.” Solomon hoped another sponsor could be found. “Saving Quick Reads will make a lasting difference to people’s lives,” she said, noting that the £120,000 required “is not a large amount of money for a commercial sponsor or group of sponsors”.
Since the announcement, a number of authors have offered donations to keep the scheme going, but long-term sponsorship is needed. At least three years’ of sponsorship would be required to run the programme effectively and ensure its sustainability, the organisers said. “Otherwise, we could find ourselves in exactly the same position again every year,” Wilkinson said. The Quick Reads titles already published will remain available.
