Eddo-Lodge chosen as Waterstones Book of the Month, with charity donation

Reni Eddo-Lodge's chart-topping Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race has been named Waterstones Book of the Month for July, with 20% of sales set to be donated to charity.

The title hit the UK Official Top 50 number one spot last week.

The retailer will donate 10% of the book’s sales through stores and online to charity for the month of promotion while the book’s publisher Bloomsbury will donate a further 10%. The initiative will see £1.80 for every copy sold at £8.99, to be split equally between two charities: BTEG, which delivers education and employment programmes for young BAME people, and Inquest, which deals with state-related deaths and their investigation.

Kate Skipper, c.o.o. of Waterstones, said: “There is no title more fitting to be our July Non-Fiction Book of the Month than Reni Eddo-Lodge’s Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race. It is a book that demands to be read urgently, pored over and then used as a basis towards tangible progress. We are delighted on the reopening of our shops to be able to support this ground-breaking work and these charities in this way, as we review, address and deliver upon positive change at Waterstones.”

Kathleen Farrar, m.d. of group sales and marketing for Bloomsbury, added: “We are pleased that Waterstones and Bloomsbury can work together to support Reni’s important book and these charities to effect real change. As Reni says ‘The work of anti-racism requires a level of self-reflection…’ There is no better place to start than with Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race.”

Earlier this month Waterstones said it was not in a position to make a charitable donation to Black Lives Matter, as urged to do by its staffers, because of the closure of shops due to the Covid-19 crisis. Stores are now reopening.