Author confident that reading will make comeback

IT IS incredible that reading has not fallen more “given the unbelievable industry created to try and stop us reading” author Richard Osman has said, as the UK Government launched a campaign to tackle a decline in the number of children reading for pleasure.

- JASMINE NORDEN

Social media has “overtaken us in a way that we didn’t quite expect’ the presenter and author of the Thursday Murder Club series added, but said he was confident reading will come back.

He was speaking at the UK Government’s launch, alongside the National Literacy Trust, of the National Year of Reading, which will involve activities and events across the UK.

It aims to tackle findings that the number of children reporting they enjoy reading in their spare time has fallen to a 20-year-low.

Asked how concerning the decline in reading levels was, Mr Osman, pictured below, said: “Not at all, because reading will come back.

“It's incredible it hasn’t fallen more given the unbelievable industry that has been created to try and stop us reading. Billions upon billions, if not trillions of dollars spent on saying, no, spend 10 seconds on this, and another 10 seconds on this, and another 10 seconds on this. The money that's been thrown at it, for reading still to exist at all tells you something, which is it gives us something as human beings. It feeds our souls.