Hussain and Piper among World Book Night lead ambassadors

Nadiya Hussain, Katie Piper, Fearne Cotton, Louise Pentland and Shaparak Khorsandi will be the lead ambassadors for World Book Night this year.

The event is an annual celebration of the pleasure of reading organised by The Reading Agency. This year’s ambassadors will run a #ReadingHour from 7 until 8 p.m. on Sunday 23rd April, with the aim of encouraging people to read. The initiative started during the first national lockdown in 2020. The Reading Agency will be launching a new initiative to encourage reading this year, with more details to be revealed in early April.

As part of World Book Night, The Reading Agency will be gifting more than 68,000 books by authors including Joe Wicks, Jay Blades, Jojo Moyes and Bernardine Evaristo. The books will be gifted to organisations across the country to give to people who don’t regularly read for pleasure or with limited access to books. This year’s 400 recipients include 89 arts organisations or charities, 47 hospitals or health centres, as well as 39 prisons and young offender institutions.

Karen Napier, c.e.o. of The Reading Agency, said: “We’re hugely excited to celebrate World Book Night 2023 with such a fantastic team of ambassadors who are helping us champion the power of reading. We’re immensely grateful for the support from authors, publishers, libraries and giveaway organisations for helping people give the gift of reading this spring!"

The list of books that will be distributed to organisations will include David Harewood’s memoir Maybe I Don’t Belong Here (Bluebird) and Superheroes: Inspiring Stories of Secret Strength by Sophia Thakur and Denzell Dankwah (Merky Books). A selection of audiobooks is also available to download for free from this month, including The Woman in the White Kimono by Ana Johns (Bolinda Audio) and One Body: A Retrospective by Catherine Simpson (Saraband).

The World Book Night booklist is elected by a panel including librarians. This year, it also features a special collection of The Reading Agency’s most popular Quick Reads, the series of shorter reads that aim to help tackle the UK’s adult literacy crisis by encouraging less confident readers to read.

Piper said: “I am so thrilled to be supporting World Book Night and this brilliant initiative by The Reading Agency. Reading and writing books changed my life, so to support a campaign based on the proven power of reading is such a natural partnership for me.”

Hussain commented: “The Reading Agency has put together a wonderful booklist of reading recommendations, in case you need any inspiration. From the list, the books I particularly love are: You Think You Know Me by Ayaan Mohamud (Usborne), Maybe I Don’t Belong Here by David Harewood (Bluebird), This Way Out by Tufayel Ahmed (Lake Union Publishing), Dead Man Talking by Roddy Doyle (Vintage). I wish everyone a brilliant World Book Night and let’s get reading!”

Cotton added: “Books are the perfect escapism from a tough day, month or year. They can be impactful, thoroughly enjoyable and expansive, each in their own way. The Reading Agency’s recommended reading list for this year’s World Book Night is a great example of this. From the list, I’m especially excited about Maybe I Don’t Belong Here by David Harewood (Bluebird), which I encourage everyone to pick up and read during the Reading Hour!”