Give A Book

Give A Book Give a Book is a charity dedicated to promoting books and the pleasure of reading in the hardest places. Silver winners at the Smiley Charity Film Awards 2025.

Our main work is in prisons, schools and with disadvantaged children. We give books to people who really need them. Give a Book mainly works in prisons and primary schools, and anywhere we can help spread the pleasure of reading. For more information please go to our website. We also have a Book of the Month every month chosen by special guests. "...I could escape for as long as I was reading..." Simon Gray, Coda

16/06/2026

A huge thank you to everyone who attended Reading in Prison Day on Friday.

It was a brilliant opportunity to get people from the prison system together to discuss the transformative power of books behind bars.

Thank you to all the speakers. The talks included keynotes by Charlie Taylor, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, and Lee Child, Prison Reading Laureate. Richard Curtis, TV and film writer and director, humorously shared his experiences of reading.

The watchwords of the day were ‘community’, ‘connection’ and ‘change’ and it was a chance to network, be inspired and celebrate everyone making a difference.



Photo credits .uk

06/06/2026

A six day celebration of culture and the arts

04/06/2026

This Volunteers’ Week, here’s a huge shout-out to the incredible employees from and who gave their time at our Store Day yesterday.

We’re also very grateful to everyone who donated books. Thank you to the author, and one of our ambassadors, Ali Smith, and in Muswell Hill.

Volunteers’ Week is a chance to recognise the people who make our work possible. Thank you to everyone who has helped with our projects, including Family Days in prisons, Prison Reading Groups, and previous Store Days.

It’s also Libraries Change Lives Week from So what better time to thank the wonderful librarians we work with in prisons and schools. We know first-hand how libraries - and librarians - genuinely do change lives.

We're proud to partner with fellow charity Shannon Trust on many projects. We're also very grateful for this feedback fr...
22/05/2026

We're proud to partner with fellow charity Shannon Trust on many projects.

We're also very grateful for this feedback from a Shannon Trust facilitator about Books For First Nighters.

The facilitator also said: 'I was really impressed by how varied the selection was -catering for a breadth of genres and reading abilities...Thank you again for such a valuable resource.'

Our Books for First Nighters project provides books for people spending their first night in custody and aims to offer comfort and mental release.

Learn more: https://giveabook.org.uk/project/books-first-nighters/

P.S The man chose 'Ace of Spades' by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé and was determined to return for 'Noughts and Crosses' by Malorie Blackman

21/05/2026

Our Store Days are vital to what we do - they are how we get books to our projects.

And we can’t run our Store Days without our amazing volunteers. A huge thank you to volunteers from Hays UK and Orion Publishing Group for all your help yesterday.

We’re also extremely grateful to the publishers we work with. Thank you Hachette Book Group and Orion, and Penguin Books for supplying these books.

🙏🙏🙏

05/05/2026

Looking back to our fantastic Store Day at the end of last month.

We are extremely grateful to all who donated books and volunteered to pack the books up to send them to our projects. A huge thank you Orion Publishing Group, Canbury Press Read for Good and Four Agency 🙏🙏🙏

‘Dictionaries are like gold dust in here, better than chocolate or even good behaviour reports’ - Prison LibrarianWe’re ...
24/04/2026

‘Dictionaries are like gold dust in here, better than chocolate or even good behaviour reports’ - Prison Librarian

We’re delighted to announce our new pilot project with CILIP: Look it Up.

Partnering with prison librarians, we’re trialling giving Collins Gem dictionaries to new prisoners on their first visit to the library. The aim is to increase library use and support reading development.

We’ve long understood the importance of dictionaries in prisons. We’ve been providing them for over a decade.

Dictionaries are greatly prized by prisoners. They help them understand written information, including messages on noticeboards and, of course, letters. Dictionaries can also act as a spur for general literacy development. Having one to hand makes the prospect of giving a book a go much less daunting.

Visit our website to find out more about our projects: https://giveabook.org.uk/



Collins Dictionary

What will you be reading this World Book Night? The Reading Hour, between 7pm and 8pm, is when people across the UK are ...
23/04/2026

What will you be reading this World Book Night? The Reading Hour, between 7pm and 8pm, is when people across the UK are dedicating time to reading.

We'll be settling down with our Book of the Month: The Bee Sting by Paul Murray. This Booker-shortlisted novel was chosen by another Booker-shortlistee, Rachel Seiffert. Rachel’s latest novel, Once The Deed Is Done, has been longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2026.

Every Book of the Month is sent to our projects, along with a bookplate explaining why it was chosen. Find out why Rachel recommends The Bee Sting by visiting our website: https://giveabook.org.uk/book/rachel-seiffert-the-bee-sting/

You can buy your copy of The Bee Sting on our page on Bookshop.org. We’ll receive 10% of the proceeds, and you’ll be helping us get books to people who need them the most: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/giveabook

Image credit: Charlie Hopkinson

The Reading Agency

22/04/2026

Meet the remarkable people championing Give a Book!

From the page to the stage, from activism to the prison system, our ambassadors have made their mark in their fields.

• Kit de Waal, author and visiting professor
• Toby Stephens, actor
• Freddie Fox, actor and director
• Akin Alleyne, Operational Governor at HM Prison and Probation Service
• Ali Smith, author, playwright, academic and journalist
• Simon Callow, actor, director, and author
• Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, British-Iranian activist and author

We’re so grateful for their support in promoting reading in the hardest places.

Want to help us put books in the hands of people who need them most? Find out how: https://giveabook.org.uk/fundraise/

Kit de Waal, Writer

We’ve just sent out 100 books to 56 prisons for the spring round of Raising Readers.Raising Readers is a family reading ...
20/04/2026

We’ve just sent out 100 books to 56 prisons for the spring round of Raising Readers.

Raising Readers is a family reading project for prisoners and their children, from birth to age 11. It offers prisoner parents the chance to choose a book to send home to their child. Each book comes with a bookplate for a parent to write a personal message, turning the book into a special gift.

We provide copies of the book for both parent and child so they can read together over the phone or during a visit.

The project makes a difference on many levels. It fosters and facilitates bonding and connection, promotes reading for pleasure, gives the family something to talk about and allows the parent to be involved in their child’s reading journey.

Look at the photos to find out which books we sent out. Thank you so much to Hachette UK for the help with providing the books.

You can also read feedback from parents, see a bookplate and discover why the project was mentioned in the Justice Committee’s 2025 report ‘Ending the cycle of reoffending’.

Rachel Bright Books Benjamin Zephaniah Cressida Cowell Tim Peake UK House of Commons Hachette Book Group

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112-114 Holland ParkAvenue
London
W114UA

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 4pm
Tuesday 9am - 5:30pm
Wednesday 9am - 5:30pm
Thursday 9am - 5:30pm
Friday 9am - 5:30pm
Saturday 9am - 5:30pm
Sunday 9am - 6pm

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