Lee Child backs nearly 500,000-book prison reading push

Lee Child is backing a Reading Agency programme to place nearly 500,000 books in UK prisons this autumn, The Guardian reported in an Oct. 15 news article.

The campaign matters because Ministry of Justice statistics for 2024-25 cited by The Guardian show 65% of initial assessments in England’s public prisons were below typical GCSE level.

Under the Reading Agency charity’s Quick Reads programme, copies of 11 short books were selected with input from prisoners and prison staff, according to the article. The plan includes one volume for each prison cell and extra stock for prison libraries.

Child, the Jack Reacher novelist and the UK’s first prison reading laureate, framed the scheme as a practical intervention rather than a symbolic donation. “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.”

The literacy figures give the programme a policy context beyond book access. Child told The Guardian that poor reading skills can deepen the barriers facing people after release, including housing, employment and official paperwork.

“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,” Child said.

The selected titles cover crime, thrillers, memoir, wellbeing and creative writing. They include Child’s High Heat, Leye Adenle’s Lagos-set thriller Cell One, AA Dhand’s Darkness Rising, Lemn Sissay’s memoir My Name Is Why, Andy McNab’s Today Everything Changes and Dr Alex George’s The Mind Manual.

Child has made between 30 and 40 prison visits since starting as laureate last year, according to The Guardian. He said he often heard that people had avoided reading because school books did not hold their interest. Quick Reads, he said, offers “proper books, proper storytellers,” adding that “there’s nothing simple or childish about them, they’re just short.”

The programme also gives publishers and authors a visible role in a public-service reading effort. AA Dhand, whose book is included, said: “Books should be accessible to everyone, regardless of their circumstances or their previous relationship with reading.”

The article did not report a budget, a detailed delivery schedule beyond autumn, or measured evidence that this specific distribution will reduce reoffending. Child said access to books should not be read as leniency, but as a practical part of rehabilitation. “My point is that no, it’s actually hard on crime,” he said.

Alongside the distribution, the Reading Agency will run author-led workshops, creative writing activities, National Prison Radio content and resources for prison libraries, education teams and peer supporters. The initiative is funded by the Henry Smith Foundation, a poverty-focused non-profit.

Source: news article, The Guardian, Oct. 15, 2026.