PRH UK donates entire audiobook library to charity Calibre Audio

Penguin Random House UK has donated its entire audio back catalogue to Calibre Audio, a charity providing a free-for-life audiobook service to anyone who has a disability that makes reading print difficult.

Under the new partnership, around 6,000 titles as well as future releases will be made freely available to Calibre’s 16,000 members, who have a range of disabilities that make reading and understanding text difficult, including visual impairments, learning disabilities, cognitive impairments and physical dexterity conditions. Earlier this year, the service was made available to people with long Covid, which has symptoms including extreme tiredness, difficulty concentrating and “brain fog”.

Anthony Kemp, c.e.o of Calibre Audio, said the addition of PRH’s back catalogue to the charity’s collection would make an enormous difference to the reading experience of its members. 

He added: “We passionately believe that everyone should be able to freely access books in the format they require and this partnership is a huge leap forward, demonstrating to our members that they are important not only to our charity but to Penguin Random House and their authors, too.”

Rebecca Sinclair, audience, brand and communications director at Penguin Random House UK, added: “At Penguin Random House UK we are determined to make sure that everyone has equal access to books, and can experience the joy of reading. Calibre is doing excellent work to ensure that print-disabled readers have access to thousands of books and stories and we are delighted to partner with them towards this goal by donating our entire audiobook catalogue.”

The partnership builds on PRH’s efforts to make books more inclusive, such as donating tens of thousands of print books each year to food banks, homeless shelters and community groups across the UK through social enterprise Neighbourly.