19 October 2025

The  Sunday Times has just launched its ‘Get Britain Reading’ campaign which is supported by a whole string of authors and celebrities including JK Rowling, Michael Morpurgo, Claire Balding and Graham Norton.  People are invited to donate to Bookbanks, volunteer to read in schools and, above all, take the pledge.

The Pledge is simply put. ‘For the next six weeks I will spend at least ten minutes a day reading to myself or to someone else, just for the fun of it.’ It is a very modest ask. But, surprise, surprise, people are not reading more than social media posts and subtitles.

The consequences are dire. One in five children aged 11 to 13 never pick up a book voluntarily. One in ten children aged 5 to 18 do not have a book of their own! Worst of all, parents are reading less frequently and less often to sons than daughters!

Astonishingly, university lecturers in English Literature are now required to teach their undergraduates how to concentrate long enough to read lengthy novels! With so much time taken up with mobile phones and reading social media, there is little time to spend on more concentrated reading material.

The benefits of reading regularly are immense. Readers are 45% more likely to sleep well. 58% are more likely to report feeling generally happy. 35% are more likely to say  they do not feel lonely and 32% are more likely to say that they do not feel anxious or depressed.

If reading is at such a low ebb, the chances that people will opt to read the Bible may be even lower. The Reformers wanted Scotland to learn how to read. ‘Two years we thinke more than sufficient to learne to reade perfectly ...’ they said. A school  in every parish was their ideal for the Word of God depended upon it!