The Reading Agency

This stopped me in my tracks.

I was reading through the website of The Reading Agency, a charity that promotes reading for pleasure at all stages of life. I’ve read all my life, and it inspired me to write. I’ve taken reading for granted - of course it’s a good thing, of course it benefits me.

But as I went through the website, I realised that it is so much more. Just stop and think for a moment about what life would be like if we did not read. Could not read. Within a few moments, I was overwhelmed at the very idea.

When my group of writerly friends decided to put together an anthology, it was a no-brainer that we would do it to support a literacy charity. Many months after that initial idea, we are ready to go! Ten writers and one artist have donated their work, The Reading Agency has given us their blessing and now The Ring is available for preorder on Amazon.

I received the proof the other day and was thrilled!

It is a thing of great beauty, thanks to Ian Bristow’s wonderful cover, and the stories inside live up to the cover! Starting with Julius Caesar’s assassination and ending with modern-day detectives on holiday in New York, the stories trace the history of a single artifact, a ring, and imagine it passing through the centuries. It has been such fun to produce, and now it may do more - entertain readers and support an important cause.

I am where I am in life because I read from an early age. In a talk yesterday to a local Probus group, I told a story I’ve recounted many times. When I was about six and working my way through the “Through the Rainbow” books at school, I read my first Greek myth -Theseus and the Minotaur. To that story I can trace my interest in the Classics, my choices in education and career, my marriage, and my writing. It is hard to overstate how important reading has been in my life, and how much joy it has brought me.

If The Ring brings in a bit of money for The Reading Agency, maybe I’m doing my bit to say “Thank you” to my parents, the schools and teachers, the libraries and librarians, and the writers who have done so much for me.

“The Reading Agency is a UK charity that inspires social and personal change through the proven power of reading. We work with individuals of all ages, communities and trusted partners to share the transformative benefits of reading for happy, healthy and thriving lives.”

The Ring is available for preorder on Amazon and will be published on May 1st.