Liverpool Central Library will welcome three best-selling authors through its doors later this month to kick start a national campaign.
The Reading Agency launches its Quick Reads initiative in the city on Tuesday 18 February and three of the featured authors, Milly Johnson, A A Dhand and Clare Mackintosh, will be taking part in a free public panel discussion.
Quick Reads started in 2006 and is an important part of The Reading Agency’s drive to improve adults’ literacy in the UK, where one in six adults find reading difficult and only a third read for pleasure.
The books are bite-sized and are designed to be engaging and accessible to all readers especially people just starting on their reading journey.
Cllr Barbara Murray, cabinet member for education, employment and skills and lead for Liverpool’s Year of Reading: “It’s wonderful news that The Reading Agency has chosen to come to Liverpool to launch 2020’s Quick Reads titles during our Year of Reading.
“Year of Reading isn’t only about encouraging young people to read. We want to boost literacy across the city and initiatives such as Quick Reads are a brilliant way of doing that. As they get older, people fall out of the reading habit as they think they don’t have time but Quick Reads mean that everyone can feel the achievement that getting to the end of a book brings.”
Six Quick Reads titles will be published on Thursday 20 February. They are:
- A Fresh Start – short story collection, edited by Fanny Blake, including stories by Jojo Moyes, Ian Rankin and Adele Parks
- Notting Hill Carnival – Candice Carty-Williams
- Darkness Rising – A A Dhand
- The Little Dreams of Lara Cliffe – Milly Johnson
- The Donor – Clare Mackintosh
- This is Going to Hurt – Adam Kay.
The Central Library event is free but tickets must be booked in advance through Eventbrite: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/quick-reads-launch-2020-tickets-90982592383
The event will also be livestreamed to other public libraries as part of a partnership between The Reading Agency and the British Library’s Living Knowledge Network.
Find out more about Liverpool’s Year of Reading by following #LiverpoolReads on Twitter.
