Roddy Doyle to pen Quick Reads title

Man Booker Prize-winning author Roddy Doyle is one of the six authors writing books for Quick Reads in 2015.

Jojo Moyes and Sophie Hannah, Adèle Geras (Hannah’s mother), Fanny Blake and James Bowen are the other authors producing short books designed to help people with poor literacy skills to enjoy reading. The scheme, which is in its ninth year, will release the titles on 5th February 2015.

The charity has published 129 titles since 2006, distributing 4.5 million copies alongside more than 3.5 million library loans. It is the first year a Booker Prize-winner has written a Quick Read, with the charity working in collaboration with the Booker Prize Foundation.

Galaxy Quick Reads project director Cathy Rentzenbrink told The Bookseller: “It will mean a lot to people to say they have read a Booker Prize-winning author. If you think that has been something unavailable for you, now you can say you have read their work.”

Shed added: "I love the Man Booker Prize and it distresses me that one in six adults of working age in the UK does not have the literacy skills to read the winning book. By asking a previous winner to write a Quick Read, we are enabling a far wider audience to experience both literature and the Man Booker Prize as they make progress on a journey towards becoming part of the reading world."

Doyle, an advocate for literacy, will also see his Quick Read, Dead Man Talking, distributed in prisons through the Booker Prize Foundation’s Books Unlocked initiative, run by the National Literacy Trust. His Booker-winning novel, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha, will also be distributed through the scheme.

He said: "I’m delighted to be involved with Quick Reads as they are all about creating new readers and I’ve seen at first-hand how low levels of literacy have a negative effect on people's lives. Literacy is the key to opening doors for everyone."

Jonathan Taylor, chairman of the Booker Prize Foundation, said the partnership was: "a powerful step in the Foundation’s continual mission to bridge the gap between literacy and literature."

Rentzenbrink said: “I’m so happy with this year’s line-up. Roddy works so hard on literacy, while Jojo and Sophie are having real moments right now, and James’ story is so inspirational.”

The six titles are made up of Doyle's "funny and frightening" Dead Man Talking; Moyes's Paris for Two/One; Hannah's Pictures or it Didn't Happen;, Blake's Red for Revenge; Geras' Out of the Dark and Bowen's Street Cat Bob, which adapts his previous recollections of life on the streets with his cat companion.

The sponsor for the scheme is Galaxy. Rentzenbrink said: "I've always thought it was a great match, because it associates reading with something pleasurable - not a chore, but something you do because you enjoy it."

Rentzenbrink added that planning was already under way for Quick Reads’ 10th anniversary in 2016.