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Shortlist announced for the Penguin/Orange Broadband Readers' Group Prize 2008
Now in its seventh year, the aim of the prize is to find the reading groups that illustrate individuality, reflect diversity of reading choices and demonstrate the pleasure of shared reading.
The six shortlisted reading groups are:
• Bullingdon Prison Reading Group, (Oxfordshire). Founded in 2001, this is one of the longest running prison groups in the country. Its members are male prisoners of all ages, joined by library staff and a volunteer co-ordinator.
• Laura's Reading Group, (Edinburgh). This mixed group has been meeting for over two and a half years and hold annual book awards, AGMs, and literary themed social nights.
• St Michaels Reading Group, (Doncaster). Originally formed by members of a local church two years ago, the mixed group live in a low income community so they made a policy decision to only read library books to enable everybody to join in.
• The Book Groupies, (London). A mixed group of twenty and thirty-somethings who share a love of reading, tapas and red wine, the Book Groupies are now in their fifth year.
• The European Reading Group, (Canterbury). This group has been running for nine years and has seven female members, all of different nationalities, most of whom are teachers.
• The Rugby High School Reading Group, (Warwickshire). Formed two years ago by Year 10 and 11 students, members wanted an opportunity to discover new books.
Entrants were asked where they meet, what they read, how they choose their members and what their reading group means to them. Entrants were also asked to write up to 500 words about what makes their reading group special.
The judging panel for the Penguin/Orange Broadband Readers’ Group Prize 2008 consists of:
• Nicci Gerrard, Penguin author and one half of crime writing duo Nicci French (Chair)
• Professor Jenny Hartley, Roehampton University, Author of The Reading Groups Book
• Jo James, Events and Local Marketing Manager, Waterstone’s
• Clare Chandler, co-director of the reading group website, www.bookgroupinfo.co.uk
• Dymphna Flynn, producer of Radio 4’s Book Club
• Karen Cunningham, Head of Libraries in Glasgow -
London, 30 July 2008: Six reading groups across the UK have been shortlisted for this year’s Penguin/Orange Broadband Readers’ Group Prize; the UK’s only annual award for reading groups.
The winning group will be announced on 28th August and first prize will be a day at Penguin’s central London office for the winning group. The prize will include meeting editors and publicists, lunch and a reading group session with a Penguin author. Second prize winners will receive two sets of the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction 2008 shortlisted books.
Magda Lojszczyk, Partnerships Manager, Orange UK commented: "It is still the only prize of its kind in the UK and we are proud to reward groups which bring people together through a love for literature. Working at a grassroots level, this prize is an important element in the wider Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction programme.”Louisa Symington, Publicity Director, Generic PR, commented: "There was a superb crop of entries this year from all over Britain - the age range was huge from 15 year old school girls to 90 year old ladies and included groups that had met through such diverse places as prisons, churches, schools and pubs. It is particularly encouraging to see a love of reading bringing people together from all ages and lifestyles, who might not necessarily be friends, but who all share one passion - books.”
All six entries are up on the Readers’ Group Prize website www.readersgroupprize.com
For further press information:
Naomi Li at M&C Saatchi:Tel: 0207 544 3687
Email: naomi.li@mcsaatchi.com
Notes to Editors:
Penguin
*Penguin Group is part of Pearson plc, the international media company with market leading businesses in education, business information and consumer publishing. For more information visit www.pearson.com* Penguin is one of Britain's top brand names. It is ranked as the 10th greatest media brand in the world (The World's Greatest Brands ed: Nicholas Kochan, Interbrand)
*The Penguin brand went online in 1995 and penguin.co.uk was re-launched with a brand new look in October 2000, covering a wide range of books and authors, from Zadie Smith and Steven Pinker to Jamie Oliver and Nick Hornby. Site statistics show consistent growth in visitors to penguin.co.uk, with visitor figures since re-launch up by 90% and page impressions increased by 70%.
*Penguin's Reading Group website www.penguin.co.uk/readers was launched in March 2001 and now has over 6000 subscribers, an increase of 443% on December 2002.
OrangeOrange is a key brand of the France Telecom Group, providing mobile, broadband, fixed, business and entertainment services across Europe. It is one of the world's leading telecommunications operators with more than 170 million customers on five continents.
In June, 2006, Orange became the single brand for mobile, broadband and multi-play offers. In addition, Orange Business Services became the new banner for business communications solutions. Orange Business Services is present in 166 countries with network reach in 220.
In the UK, Orange provides high quality GSM coverage to 99% of the UK population. At the end of March 2008, Orange had over 16.9 million customers in the UK – 15.8 million active mobile customers and over 1.1 million broadband customers.
Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trade marks of Orange Personal Communications Services Limited.
Further information about Orange and France Telecom can be found on the Orange website at www.orange.co.uk or the France Telecom website at www.francetelecom.com
For further information, call the Orange press office on 0870 373 1500 or email: Orangepr@golinharris.com.
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