Hachette celebrates 200th anniversary with £200,000 fund for 200 Raising Readers packs

8 December 2025, London, UK – In his annual letter to authors, illustrators and translators, Hachette UK and Hachette Book Group’s CEO, David Shelley, today announced a Raising Readers fund of £200,000 to mark the 200^th anniversary of the Hachette business. The fund will be dedicated to social impact initiatives embedded within their urgent and long-term Raising Readers campaign to combat the decline in children reading for pleasure, the single biggest predictor of a child’s future success.

In the UK, launching in Spring 2026, community groups and charities will be able to apply for one of 200 Raising Readers packs, which include everything needed to create a dedicated reading space or Book Nook, including: £1000 worth of children’s books; furniture such as seating and shelving; a dictionary; reading guides; bespoke display materials; and party packs to launch the reading space.

In addition, the business has committed to fundraising for reading charities via staff challenges such as the H200 London to Paris bike ride, 200 days of staff volunteering with Hachette UK’s charity partners, and the Hachette 200 Book and Bake event on World Book Day.

Since its launch in December 2024, the Raising Readers letter has been printed in the back of 6 million adult books. By the end of 2026, it’s projected to be in 25 million copies across more than 3,000 works. This message also appears in ebook and audio versions (and in the latter, generously read by Lorraine Kelly). In 2026, a new Raising Readers message addressed to parents will be included in a selection of books for young children.

In September 2025, Hachette UK announced a bespoke partnership with the National Literacy Trust that will reach almost 4,000 families from schools in areas of socio-economic disadvantage near Hachette UK’s national offices through reading-for-fun events. Additional social impact projects with long-term partners such as The Reading Agency and World Book Day will be announced in early 2026.

David Shelley, CEO at Hachette UK and Hachette Book Group, said: ‘We know that books and reading are more predictive of a child’s future success than any other factor and that the decline in reading is currently steeper in lower socio-economic groups than higher socio-economic groups. So, in 2026, we aim to take Raising Readers to the next level and create opportunities for thousands of children from disadvantaged backgrounds to make reading part of their everyday lives by establishing 200 Raising Readers Book Nooks stocked with hundreds of brand-new books.’

In 2026, Hachette is proud to be working with social impact agency TDW+Co to boost the reach of Raising Readers through a creative consumer campaign running across the US and UK. TDW+Co is a community-based and mission-driven agency that seeks to build authentic connections between brands and consumers through cultural understanding and a network of community partners. The collective goal to reach readers from underrepresented and marginalised communities aligns closely with Hachette’s Changing the Story pillar.