“We are nearing the end of Book Aid International’s 70th anniversary year and what a year it’s been.

This year we provided1.2 million brand-new, carefully selected books to people in libraries, schools, universities, refugee camps, hospitals and prisons around the world.

In September, we held a royal reception at St. James’s Palace, hosted by our Patron, Her Majesty The Queen. The reception was attended by 120 guests, including our partners who receive our books all over the world, friends of Book Aid International, supporters of Book Aid International and authors Sir Ben Okri, Ken Follet and Mariella Frostrup.

Her Majesty also spoke at the event and we didn’t know this was going to happen and it was a wonderful present to us when it did. She said:

“If we can keep on doing this all over the world, we’re going to make a very, very big difference. to people reading books, to children getting access to books. And it’s really thanks to Book Aid International and all of you here tonight who have made this possible. So thank you very much indeed.”

We delivered a second shipment of books for Ukraine, as part of our support for PEN Ukraine, and their Unbreakable Libraries project, resupplying libraries that have been bombed out during the conflict.

We also sent 400,543 books to people in countries that are classed as being fragile or conflict afflicted affected states. We are currently running a Christmas appeal called A World Away to help send books to children and families who have been displaced by conflict.

My call to action to all of you is to encourage people to support Book Aid International. It only costs £2 to send a book.

In an attempt to act and not just speak, I can tell you that Bloomsbury Publishing donated £343,278 worth of books in 2024. And we also gave cash to help ship those books to their overseas destinations of £75,000.

I know I’m preaching to the converted in many of you watching this and that you are supporting Book Aid International in an even bigger way and we’re fantastically grateful to all of you.

So, it remains only for me to thank all of you on behalf of our Chair, Dr Alice Prochaska and Chief Executive, Alison Tweed.”

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