The Reader is an award-winning charitable social enterprise working to connect people with great literature through shared reading. We’re here to bring books to life, creating welcoming environments in which personal feeling is recognised and valued, forming vital connections between people and literature through which everyone can feel more alive.

Our ethos and purpose were originally forged in our shared reading groups, which is where most of our activity still takes place.  But we are now working in other areas of communal life, and our purpose shines through in our Café, Ice Cream Parlour and interactive children’s centre, The Storybarn, on our allotment, in a community play, at a public reading or even at a conker festival. Whatever we do, we do with brio, with care for people and with commitment to detail at every level.