About 'The Bigger Read'

The BBC’s Big Read, the national search for the nation’s best-loved novel, was launched in April 2003 to a fanfare of publicity and TV coverage.  Harnessing the support of publishers, booksellers, literacy organisations and libraries, the initiative has generated a massive interest in reading, and dramatically boosted sales for the titles in the top 100.  With all 4,200 libraries in the country signed up to support the campaign, over 80,000 reading group packs downloaded from the BBC website and a hefty 2.3 million viewers tuning in to watch Clive Anderson announce the shortlist, it would certainly seem that the Big Read’s intention to ‘to get people talking about books’ has succeeded where other reading campaigns have not.  And, although the Guardian declared the list ‘nostagic, populist and with a very English eccentricity’, the media has generally resisted the urge to take too ‘highbrow’ a stance on it, accepting the idea that this is a campaign for ‘favourite’ books, not ‘best’.

The lack of diversity on the list, however, is impossible to ignore.  Although votes were eligible for authors of any nationality providing they had been translated into English, only seven titles on the Top 100 list were translations, and only one on the shortlist - Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace.  In this context, the so-called ‘Big Read’ seems not so much 'big' as distinctly narrow, and not at all representative of the diversity and depth of world literature.  The lack of a sizeable number of books originally written in foreign languages is perhaps not surprising, but is a worrying indication of the current status of translated literature in the UK.  

English PEN has decided to launch its own alternative to the Big Read, which reflects our favourite literature from all over the world.  We aim to inspire people to read literature from other countries, about people, places and cultures they might not know, and which they come to discover through books.  Originally written in languages from all over the world, these books have made an impression on us in one way or another.  We hope you'll agree that they have all - in one way or another - made a significant contribution towards cultural development.

Read English PEN's The Bigger Read list