Grim Reading: A TENTH of Brits don’t recall reading a book until secondary school

One in 10 Brits don’t remember reading their first book until after the age of 12, according to a new study from The Works.

Despite reading being a key part of the primary school syllabus, a new survey commissioned by the leading bookseller has found that a significant portion of the nation isn’t remembering those titles, but rather ones when they hit secondary education age.

Of those that remember opening a book in the later stages of childhood, there was a significant difference between genders, with females 50% more likely to leave reading to a later age, making up for 75% of all children who don’t remember reading their first book until over 12.

The study also found this has a knock-on effect when we introduce reading to our own children, with those who don’t remember reading their first book until after 12 years old 20% less likely to read to their child until after the age of two.

While around 44% of parents on average read to their children from birth, that figure falls to just 19% for those who don’t start themselves until after 12, with a further 10% not reading their child their first book until over the age of seven.

Overall, most adults (56%) remember reading their first book between the ages of four and seven, with one in seven adults picking up an Enid Blyton title, The Faraway Tree and Famous Five series’ the two most popular, and overall most popular outside the Harry Potter franchise, which one in five adults cite as their first book.

When it comes to reading to our little ones, Julia Donaldson has picked up from where Blyton left off, with one in eight parents reading The Gruffalo as a child’s first book, and with books by the author making up 20% of the results.