The Hay Festival has launched an ambitious new initiative aimed at reversing the decline of reading in Britain by celebrating the sheer joy of fiction. Named 'The Pleasure List', the crowd-sourced collection of adult reading recommendations has been curated to highlight the country’s most un-put-downable books.
The campaign has been developed in partnership with the National Year of Reading 2026, serving as a direct response to worrying statistics that suggest fewer and fewer people across the United Kingdom are choosing to read for pleasure in their spare time. The unveiling of the list coincides with the opening day of the Hay Festival, which remains the largest free-to-enter celebration of books in the UK. Spanning eleven days in the famous book town of Hay-on-Wye, Wales, this year’s event marks the festival’s 39th anniversary.
To honour this milestone, the public-voted list features 39 titles, offering a diverse range of literary inspiration designed to appeal to readers of all ages and backgrounds. The final selection is the result of a massive six-month public call-out, during which thousands of passionate readers from across the country submitted their personal favourites to shape the definitive list. Reflecting a broad mix of genres, the final 39 titles bridge the gap between traditional literary classics and modern digital phenomena, featuring contemporary #BookTok bestsellers alongside timeless masterpieces.
Among the celebrated works included are romantic staples like Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Jilly Cooper’s Riders, alongside gripping speculative fiction such as George Orwell’s 1984, Frank Herbert’s Dune, and Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Modern blockbusters such as Rebecca Yarros’s Fourth Wing and Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club also sit comfortably alongside historical heavyweights like Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall and Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield.
Stephen Fry, president of the Hay Festival, expressed both concern for current trends and immense optimism for the new campaign. He noted: 'You might have heard that this year is our National Year of Reading. Great news for book lovers, but the stats show we’re a dying breed. Fewer and fewer people in Britain are reading for pleasure and we want to change that.' Hay Festival Chief Executive Julie Finch added: 'Over the past six months we have been inspired as the public nominations for our Pleasure List campaign have flooded in. It has been a reminder of the joyful place reading holds in many of our lives – the power of great stories to delight and entertain us – a joy we’re keen to spread as far as possible in the National Year of Reading.'
