A global publishing giant with roots in Glasgow dating back more than 200 years is to help gift 20,000 books across the city.
HarperCollins is joining forces with the Children’s Book Project charity to distribute new and little-used books to 20 schools in the coming months.
They will be prepared and packaged at a vast new distribution, office and archive complex in Glasgow opened last year by the company.
Read more:
- New artificial intelligence technology is boosting literacy
- Publishing giant unveils new distribution centre in Scotland
- Scottish Book Trust and Herald appeal gives 116,000 books
Volunteers will be sorting, quality-checking and boxing books donated by the publishers HarperCollins, Nosy Crow, Raintree, Melia, Bold Wren Press, Curly Tale, Little Door Books and Serafina. Retail giant ASDA is also collecting books from its customers to help support the initiative.
HarperCollins hopes the initiative – which is part of the company’s commitment to a UK-wide National Year of Reading campaign - could help Glasgow “buck the trend” of declining numbers of children reading books.
The National Year of Reading was launched in January by the National Literary Trust and the UK Government’s Department of Education.
Sir Ian Rankin, Val McDermid and Jackie Kay – who are official ambassadors of the campaign – joined the Queen to launch the UK-wide initiative at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh in January, days after new research revealed that less than a third of young Scots aged between eight and 18 enjoyed reading in their free time.
Only one in six young people said they read on a daily basis, while nearly one in three said they rarely or never read in their spare time, according to the National Literary Trust research, which suggested that one in ten children in Glasgow do not have any books.
At the time of the National Year of Reading campaign launch, Sir Ian Rankin said: “It is important that we become a nation of readers and relearn the joy and empowerment that come with reading. The written word connects us to the world more surely than soundbites and social media, helping us to understand more fully who we are and what we are capable of achieving.”
Val McDermid said: “Reading is a window on the world beyond our own. It shows us possibilities and gives us the tools to make them realities. Reading is the greatest gift we can give our children. And ourselves."
Last month HarperCollins published its own research revealing that reading for pleasure had slumped to just 25 per cent among 5–17-year-olds across the UK compared to 39 per cent in 2012.
The proportion of 5-7 year-olds who rarely or never read has risen from eight to 11 per cent in the space of 12 months.
HarperCollins’ Scottish roots can be traced back to 1819 when William Collins & Sons was founded in Glasgow. Harper Collins was created out a merger in 1990 with American company Harper & Row, which was formed in New York in 1817.
The company, which publishes around 1500 books a year in the UK, has offices in London, Yorkshire, Manchester, Edinburgh and Dublin, as well as the Robroyston site, in north Glasgow.
HarperCollins sends up to three million books around the world every week during peak periods from its distribution centre in Robroyston, with company handling around 110 million books a year at the site, and around 400 staff are employed.
The 550,000 sq ft complex was opened last year with the help of a number of HarperCollins authors, including Jeffrey Archer, Jung Chang, Nigel Slater and Sarah Ferguson.
HarperCollins is organising three-day “booking sorting events” at the Robroyston complex this month and in September under its partnership with the Children’s Book Project.
Volunteers from all the publishers who are donating books will be helping to sort them out along with staff at the distribution centre.
HarperCollins UK chief executive Kate Elton said: “Glasgow has been HarperCollins’s home in Scotland since Collins was founded here in 1819, and generations of Glaswegians have worked for the company as it grew, including in our new offices and distribution centre in Robroyston, which opened in 2025.
“Glasgow is home to nearly half our workforce, our roots here are deep and we feel very much part of the community, of which schools are such a vital part.
“That’s why we are very proud to support the Children’s Book Project in Glasgow, especially during The National Year of Reading, as we continue to work to make every child a proud reader by putting reading for pleasure back at the heart of their lives.”
Children’s Book Project chief executive Liberty Venn said: “We are absolutely delighted to be bringing the Children’s Book Project to Glasgow, in partnership with a business so embedded in the city’s cultural heritage and history.
“HarperCollins has supported our work for several years, so it is great to be teaming up on such a major project.
“HarperCollins’s help — in use of office and warehouse space, in book donations, in volunteers — will be invaluable in helping us allow thousands of children to experience the magic of owning their very own books."
Author Gill Sims, who joined staff and volunteers at the Robroyston complex to launch the new partnership, said: “I’m absolutely thrilled my publisher is supporting this brilliant initiative with the Children’s Book Project.
“I went to school in Glasgow, as did my own children, and HarperCollins’ continued support for the city and its children and young people means a huge amount to me. And as a writer of books for children, I know just how special it is when a child falls in love with a book.
“Enabling children to choose their own books is a massive part of helping them to know that reading isn’t only something you learn in school, it can bring you joy every day, and transport you into other worlds.
“It’s an amazing thought that this week, thousands of kids are going to be able to take home a book that they might remember and treasure their entire life, thanks to what is happening here today- it’s a huge honour to have been asked to take part in something so important.”
