Booktrust
| Formation | 1921 |
|---|---|
| Legal status | Independent Charity |
| Purpose | Book Trust is the UK's leading literacy charity. Book Trust aims to transform lives by getting children and families reading. |
| Location |
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Chief Executive
|
Diana Gerald |
| Website | booktrust.org.uk |
BookTrust is an independent British literacy charity based in London, England. The charity works across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Book Trust was founded in 1921 by Hugh Walpole, Stanley Unwin, and Maurice Marston and Harold Macmillan. Its current Chief Executive is Diana Gerald, who took over from Viv Bird in early 2015.
The charity’s aims are to transform lives through reading. Book Trust’s various book-gifting programmes are offered to children aged 0–16 years. Since 1992 Book Trust have gifted 57.5 million books to children.
In 1921, BookTrust (formerly the Society of Bookmen) was founded by authors Hugh Walpole and John Galsworthy, publishers Stanley Unwin and Maurice Marston and politician Harold Macmillan.
At one of the Society's early meetings in 1924, it was proposed that a National Book Council should be formed; the first meeting of the newly formed National Book Council took place in Eastbourne on 11 September 1924.
Several years later saw the first Children's Book Week take place. An event that historically took place in October, the event helped schools, libraries, children and their parents celebrate books and reading for pleasure. Since 2013 Children’s Book Week has taken place in early July.
In 1969, Book Trust’s then Chief Executive, Martyn Goff secured funding from the Arts Council. This allowed the charity to move in new directions. Ultimately this paved the way for Book Trust to manage several established literary prizes, including the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction (formerly The Orange Prize for Fiction), Blue Peter Book Award and The Sunday Times Short Story Award.
In a bid to demonstrate and champion the benefits of reading from a young age, Bookstart was created in 1992 by the charity in partnership with libraries and health visitors.
Bookstart is Book Trust’s early years programme. Bookstart gifts books to children between the ages of 0-1 and 3-4. The pilot for the programme was initiated in Birmingham in 1992 and involved 300 babies. Book Trust commissioned Professor Barry Wade and Dr Maggie Moore to both promote and research the Bookstart project. The project built on previous research which identified the significance of reading with very young children.
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