Editor’s letter
Editor-in-chief Gaby is passionate about everyone having access to books and reading
One passion that Good Housekeeping readers universally share is the joy of reading. I know this from all the letters and emails that are sent in each month (for which I thank you!). While you may not agree with every article in GH, you clearly appreciate delving into your favourite magazine and devouring our contents, finding them at different times thought-provoking, inspirational, informative and even challenging.
I also know that you are passionate book lovers from the enthusiastic response we get to the recommendations made on our Bookshelf pages (on page 146 this month), our author interviews (such as Jojo Moyes on page 148) and from the 41,000 of you who are members of our Facebook Book Group. What’s better than losing yourself in a story, getting to know the characters and letting your imagination run free? As so many of you agree, it’s the ideal way to wind down – the perfect antidote to a busy life.
So, I’m sure, like me, you’ll find the following facts both sad and shocking: 20%, or one in five, children between the ages of five and eight have no books of their own at home – a figure that’s increased since the pandemic began and looks set to rise even further given the current cost-of-living crisis. To make matters worse, one in seven primary schools in the UK no longer has a library – rising to one in four schools in the most deprived areas. According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 4.3m children are now living in poverty in the UK and it’s widely accepted that there’s a link between child poverty and low literacy.
Coming from the publishing industry this, of course, feels like an important issue; after all, where will the next generation of GH readers come from if we don’t encourage children to read? But it also runs far deeper than this for me and the GH team; in a country where we have a keen levelling-up agenda and where most of us aspire to live in a fair and diverse society, access to books and the opportunity to read is, quite clearly, vital.
Thinking back to my own childhood, I remember how much books were a wonderful – and integral – part of i
