A new short story collection is being gifted to readers across London to help break down barriers to reading.
A total of 12,000 free copies of All Around the World: Stories by Booker Prize Writers will be distributed through libraries, community partners and a prison reading programme as part of the latest Booker Prizes Quick Read initiative, delivered in partnership with The Reading Agency.
The collection features stories by seven internationally acclaimed authors and is curated by Booker Prize-winning writer Roddy Doyle.
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Roddy Doyle said: "It’s an invitation to read. Quick Reads is like dipping your toe in the water of literature, with some of the barriers that might put people off removed. A lot of people might feel there is nothing about their world in books.
"The stories in All Around the World have access points, and I hope they alert readers to the fact that, actually, their life might be in here somewhere."
The project aims to address obstacles identified in new research by The Reading Agency and the Booker Prize Foundation, which found that 35 per cent of UK adults find it hard to finish books, while 21 per cent said books are too expensive to buy regularly.
Other barriers included lack of time (22 per cent) and frequent distraction (26 per cent).
All Around the World will be distributed through libraries, Bookbanks, The Big Issue, and the Booker Prize Foundation’s Books Unlocked prison reading scheme, run in partnership with the National Literacy Trust. A total of 2,000 copies will be given to people in custody.
Gaby Wood, chief executive of the Booker Prize Foundation, said: "This collection was created to make some of the world’s best fiction more accessible to people facing some of these barriers, without compromising on the highest quality fiction from Booker Prize and International Booker Prize-nominated authors."
Quick Reads is a long-running programme designed to support adults with lower reading confidence, limited time, or English as a second language by providing short, accessible books.
The Booker Prize Foundation and The Reading Agency plan to expand the scheme by developing a new library of Quick Reads by Booker Prize authors.
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