The Reading Agency
The Reading Agency and 91Èȱ¬ Radio 2 Book Club
is a charity whose mission is to give everyone an equal chance in life by helping people become confident and enthusiastic readers. Because everything changes when we read.
Five million working-aged people have poor literacy skills so the charity focuses particularly on helping people who need extra support to become readers or get back into reading – including children, disadvantaged young people and adults with poor literacy skills.
It does this by running national reading challenges, volunteering campaigns and through reading groups. is The Reading Agency’s website that celebrates all the good things that happen when people come together in their communities to discuss and share books and reading. On the site you can find support and resources for running reading groups, as well as great offers and events like free books and meet-the-author events. to keep up to date and take advantage of what’s on offer or find a reading group to join.
The Reading Agency and the Radio 2 Book Club
Radio 2 works with The Reading Agency to select books for the Radio 2 Book Club.
Each season, publishers big and small submit their best forthcoming titles. The books are read by a rolling panel, made up of Reading Agency and library staff from across the UK. They look for well-written and gripping reads – the sort of books that will appeal to the Radio 2 audience and get everyone reading.
The panel chooses their top 12 books, which go to a Radio 2 committee who select the six books for that season. The first books selected by this process will air in April 2014.
"This is a fantastic initiative from 91Èȱ¬ Radio 2 and The Reading Agency. I'm delighted to join the new panel, and bring the community expertise of librarians into the mix. Together we can encourage even more people to take the wonderful journey that is reading!" Karen Cunningham, Head of Libraries and Cultural Venues, Glasgow Life, and Radio 2 Book Club panel member.
"We are very proud to be working with 91Èȱ¬ Radio 2 and our library partners on this brilliant initiative; we hope it inspires many more people to join a book club, open a book and discover the wonderful, transformative power of reading." Sue Wilkinson, Chief Executive, The Reading Agency.
If you have any questions about Radio 2 Book Club submissions, please contact joe.haddow@bbc.co.uk.