Where the money is going in 2011

 

The Chiswick Book Festival is a non-profit-making, community event. Over the past three years, the Festival has supported three charities related to reading and literacy, and also the work of St Michael & All Angels Church, which hosts the Festival.

The charities received a share of the profits from the Festival, and have also used it as a platform to widen knowledge of their work. The 2011 Festival made a surplus of £6,804 from the sale of tickets and refreshments, and sponsorship, to be divided between our three book-related charities (see below for links to their websites) and St Michael & All Angels Church. They each received £1,701:-

  • RNIB Talking Books Service and Books for Children.
    The Festival's contribution in 2009 was used to sponsor the recording of Sandi Toksvig's children's bookRosamund Lupton Claire Tomalin with The Invisible WomanThe Littlest Viking, and Claire Tomalin's The Invisible Woman, and is acknowledged on the CDs. Claire Tomalin spoke about the book at the 2010 Festival (near right), from the surplus of which we funded the recording of Sister by Rosamund Lupton (right).

  • InterAct Reading Service, which provides a reading service for stroke patients in hospital. One of its patrons is Chiswick resident Richard Briers and the Festival also supported its Ruth Rendell Short Story Competition in 2009 and 2011. InterAct was one of five winners in the and some of its readers took part in a production at the 2010 Festival, including readings of the winning entries in the English Heritage/Chiswick House writing competition.

  • The Letterbox Club, which works with local authorities to send regular book parcels to children aged 7 to 11 in foster families, to improve their educational outlook. It's part of the Book Trust and one of its patrons is Jacqueline Wilson, who spoke at the first Festival. It delivers almost 30,000 parcels to 4,600 children in 140 local authorities across the UK. A former member of the Book Trust staff is now actively involved in the Festival. Letterbox Green has now been launched for older children.

Over the three Festivals, we have raised around £18,000 for the charities and St Michael's.