Why Read?: The Battle Between Book and Screen

In Why Read? The Battle Between Book and Screen Kenneth Baker recalls how reading was so important to him as a child, and why in this National Year of Reading, and working together with the National Literacy Trust, he would like to encourage today’s young people to share his love of reading.

In Why Read? The Battle Between Book and Screen Kenneth Baker recalls how reading was so important to him as a child, and why in this National Year of Reading, and working together with the National Literacy Trust, he would like to encourage today’s young people to share his love of reading.

'I first came across poetry at my primary school in a book containing Blake’s ‘The Tiger’. I had never seen one, but it came alive by reading about it. My father read to my sister and myself extracts from Dickens and I still reread all his novels - my favourite is Bleak House.'

‘In my life I’ve spent more time reading books than any other activity. I want to share the joy and pleasure with those who are not natural readers. Opening a book spells the end of ignorance and it frames our imaginative life forever.'

‘This book has over 100 illustrations for as Alice in Wonderland said ‘what is the use of a book without illustrations?’

Kenneth Baker has been in the House of Commons and the Lords for 58 years, having previously been a successful businessman. In the Thatcher cabinet he was Environment Secretary, Education Secretary and the Party Chairman and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. In 2010 he decided that the English education system lacked high quality technical schools and so he started the University Technical Colleges for students aged 14-18; there are now 45 UTCs across the country with 21,000 students at any one time. They are among the best schools in the country. Less than 3% of UTC school leavers join the ranks of the unemployed whereas the national rate is 14% and rising.