The Pleasure of Reading

In this delightful collection forty acclaimed writers explain what first made them interested in literature, what inspired them to read and what makes them continue to do so. First published in 1992 in hardback only, original contributors include Margaret Atwood, J. G. Ballard, Melvyn Bragg, A. S. Byatt, Carol Ann Duffy, Simon Gray, Germaine Greer, Alan Hollinghurst, Doris Lessing, Candia McWilliam, Edna O'Brien, Ruth Rendell, Tom Stoppard, Sue Townsend and Jeanette Winterson. The new edition will include essays from five new writers, Emily Berry, Kamila Shamsie, Rory Stewart, Katie Waldegrave and Tom Wells. Royalties generated from this project will go to Give a Book, www.giveabook.org.uk, a charity set up in 2011 that seeks to get books to places where they will be of particular benefit. Give a Book works in conjunction with Age UK, Prison Reading Groups, Maggie's Centres, which help people affected by cancer, and various schools and literacy projects, such as Beanstalk, where many pupils have never had a book of their own in their lives.

Antonia Fraser is well known as a historical biographer whose books include Cromwell: Our Chief of Men, Mary, Queen of Scots, The Gunpowder Plot and The Six Wives of Henry VIII. She also writes the Jemima Shore crime novels and in 2010 published an acclaimed memoir of her life with her husband Harold Pinter, Must You Go? She has been President of English PEN and Chairman of both the Society of Authors and the Crimewriters' Association. She lives in Holland Park, London. Victoria Gray is a trustee of Give a Book, a charity founded in honour of her late husband, the playwright and diarist Simon Gray. She lives in London. Give a Book is a UK registered charity. It was set up in 2011 in memory of writer and playwright Simon Gray who loved to read and to share his reading. It facilitates the gift of books to selected charities and other organisations.

“A wonderful book for those of us that are addicted to print. A compendium of mostly British authors which lead you through their lives of reading. Sue Townsend mentions that she didn't learn to read before the age of eight and that her teacher was a nasty drunk with a face like a dyspeptic badger!” –  Jack Coleman, ***** on Good Reads

“Really enjoyed this book :) And it brought back so many memories of my early years of reading ... reading a book in bed under the covers at night by torch light ... ALWAYS having a book to hand and being told to “Put that book down!” ... getting annoyed if ever a Birthday or Christmas Day passed WITHOUT A NEW BOOK arriving!!!” –  Alayne, **** on Good Reads