Waterstones joins with publishers and authors in bid to raise £1m for Ukraine

Waterstones has joined with publishers and authors in a bid to raise £1m for Ukraine. 

The Read for Ukraine campaign will see the bookseller offer a curated selection of books, donated by publishers and their authors, with 100% of the sales to be donated to Oxfam’s Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal. 

The campaign will include a dedicated table in the front of every one of the retailer’s bookshops, including all Waterstones, Hatchards, Hodges Figgis, Foyles and Blackwell’s branches, and will be hosted online. 

Waterstones said its appeal for book donations was “answered with goodwill and great generosity by authors and publishers” and it expects the campaign to run “for some months to raise as much money as possible for those affected by the crisis, with the book selection being regularly reviewed and refreshed in collaboration with publishing partners”. 

The retailer will also work with Vintage to offer a special charity edition of Andrey Kurkov’s Death and the Penguin (Vintage Classics), available from the week commencing 24th April. The charity edition of the novel includes a new introduction by Kurkov, placing the novel in the context of the conflict in Ukraine. Vintage and Waterstones will jointly donate £10 for every copy sold to Oxfam’s Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal. 

James Daunt, Waterstones m.d., said: “We are very proud as booksellers to be able to work with authors and publishers to make this collective contribution to help the humanitarian effort to support those affected by the crisis in Ukraine. We thank the authors and publishers for their generosity. This is a compelling selection of books, with every penny from their sale going to support this urgent work." 

Danny Sriskandarajah, chief executive of Oxfam GB, added: “We are incredibly grateful to everyone involved in the Read for Ukraine initiative for their support to people fleeing the devastating conflict in Ukraine. As humanitarian needs continue to grow, the money raised will help Oxfam and partner organisations in Eastern Europe to provide vital support to people who have already lost so much. With so many people displaced by the conflict, we are also working to set up safe travel routes for refugees and advocating for governments to honour their international commitments to the rights of all refugees.” 

The Read for Ukraine books are: 

Ben Aitken A Chip Shop In Poznan (Icon Books)  

Ed Caesar The Moth And The Mountain (Penguin Books)  

Joanna Cannon The Trouble with Goats and Sheep (Borough Press)  

Felicity Cloake One More Croissant For The Road (Mudlark)  

Lawrence Durrell White Eagles Over Serbia (Faber)  

Bernadine Evaristo Mr Loverman (Penguin Books)  

Jasper Fforde The Eyre Affair (Hodder & Stoughton)  

Lucy Foley The Hunting Party (HarperCollins)  

Mark Gevisser The Pink Line (Profile Books)  

Andrew Sean Greer Less (Little, Brown)  

Kristin Hannah The Nightingale (Pan Macmillan)  

Terry Hayes I am Pilgrim (Transworld)  

Ruth Hogan The Keeper Of Lost Things (John Murray)  

Rowan Hooper How To Spend A Trillion Dollars (Profile Books)  

Simon Jenkins A Short History Of Europe (Penguin Books)  

Marina Lewycka A Short History Of Tractors In Ukrainian (Penguin Books)  

Anthony McGowan How To Teach Philosophy To Your Dog (Oneworld)  

Maggie O’Farrell This Must Be The Place (Tinder Press)  

Randall Munroe How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems (John Murray)  

David Nott War Doctor (Picador)  

Angela Saini Inferior (Fourth Estate)  

Laura Shepherd-Robinson Blood & Sugar (Pan Macmillan)  

Ali Smith Summer (Hamish Hamilton)  

Rebecca Solnit A Field Guide To Getting Lost (Canongate Books)  

Timothy Snyder On Tyranny (Bodley Head)  

Peter Wohlleben The Hidden Life of Trees (William Collins)  

Various In The Garden (Daunt Books)