Nearly half a million books will be distributed across prisons in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland this autumn, in a campaign backed by bestselling thriller writer Lee Child.
The initiative, delivered by the Reading Agency charity as part of its Quick Reads programme, will see copies of 11 short books distributed, with titles selected with input from prisoners as well as staff. A book will be distributed to every cell across the prison estate, as well as stock sent to prison libraries.
Child, the UK’s first prison reading laureate, said the initiative was intended to address the “revolving door” – people leaving prison but struggling to cope outside and returning to custody.
“If we can stop one in 10 of those people from coming back, that would be a major achievement,” he said. “It would be good for society as a whole, not just for that individual prisoner and their future employer.”
Ministry of Justice statistics for 2024-25 show that 65% of initial-assessment results across public prisons in England, based on tests taken when people entered custody, were at entry levels 1-3, below the standard expected of a typical GCSE student.
Child said people who wanted to turn their lives around after prison could face compounded barriers if they had difficulty reading. “The obvious beneficiary will be somebody who is [in prison] due to some kind of mistake or unfortunate circumstance that they regret, and who wants to go straight afterwards and never come back,” he said. “But they face the problem of finding a job if they’ve got a conviction, and on top of that, if they’ve got poor literacy skills.”
Everyday tasks could also become obstacles, he said. “You can’t read a lease if you want to rent a flat; you can’t deal with utilities or a TV licence if you can’t read the official notices.”
The Quick Reads collection spans crime and thrillers, memoir, wellbeing, and a creative writing guide. Fiction titles include High Heat by Child himself; Cell One, a Lagos-set thriller by Leye Adenle; and Darkness Rising, from Bradford-based crime writer AA Dhand’s Harry Virdee series. Other books include Lemn Sissay’s memoir My Name Is Why, Andy McNab’s Today Everything Changes and Dr Alex George’s The Mind Manual. Authors featured also include Dreda Say Mitchell, Fiona Cummins, Cathy Rentzenbrink and Alex Wheatle.
Child, who has made between 30 and 40 prison visits since beginning his work as laureate last year, said one of the most common explanations he heard from people who did not read was that the books they had been given at school were boring. Quick Reads, he said, offers an alternative. “They are proper books, proper storytellers, and there’s nothing simple or childish about them, they’re just short.”
He added that improving access to books should be understood not as a soft approach to criminal justice but as a practical way to support rehabilitation and reduce reoffending. “The problem with public reaction to this kind of thing is a rather kneejerk reaction of ‘soft on crime’,” he said. “My point is that no, it’s actually hard on crime. It is focusing on where the budget and attention should really be.”
Alongside distributing the books, the Reading Agency will organise author-led workshops, creative writing activities, content for National Prison Radio and resources for prison libraries, education teams and peer supporters. The initiative is funded by the Henry Smith Foundation, a poverty-focused non-profit.
AA Dhand, whose Darkness Rising is among the selected books, said: “Books should be accessible to everyone, regardless of their circumstances or their previous relationship with reading.”
Dhand added: “In prison, reading can provide far more than temporary escape. It can build confidence, create empathy and give people the opportunity to see the world and themselves differently. If the right book reaches the right person at the right moment, it can open a door that may otherwise have remained closed.”
Karen Napier, chief executive of the Reading Agency, said the programme was built with the intention of giving people in prison choice over what they read.
“When we put a book directly into someone’s hands, we are offering more than words on a page,” she said. “Reading can offer escape, connection and space for reflection, while supporting wellbeing, confidence and learning. We want as many people as possible to have the opportunity to find a book that grabs them and discover where reading might take them.”
