There are 12 million British adults who have literacy skills worse than those expected of an 11-year-old, according to a recent report by the Commons Public Accounts Committee.
Now British authors, entertainers and sports personalities are trying to convince reluctant readers that reading and writing can be fun.
The adults are emergent readers, those with low literacy skills and who may not have picked up a book in years. They may lead perfectly normal lives, holding down jobs and raising families, but be unable to fill out forms, read anything more than newspapers or help their children with their homework.
Until recently, even if they wanted to, there was very little for them to read, except dumbed-down or abridged versions of adult books and tabloid newspapers.
Now, best-selling authors including Minette Walters, Ruth Rendell, Joanna Trollope and Richard Branson, have written Quick Reads, a series of short, fast-paced books especially for emergent readers. Each of the 12 books is slightly more than 100 pages long. Quick Reads is funded by World Book Day, National Book Tokens and the Department of Education, among others. Its partners include the BBC, The Vital Link and The Reading Agency.
'There's been a real paucity of interesting reading material for emergent readers,' said Kay Jackaman, campaign manager for The Vital Link.
