News

Emma, Former British Army Movement Controller and now military charity professional, discovered Reading Force during a particularly challenging time for her family. Having served in the Royal Logistic Corps between 2005 and 2014 — including several operational tours — she and her husband, a serving Royal Navy Warfare Officer, are raising two children, aged 9 and 12. Like many military families, they balance life between postings, separations, and the everyday juggle of work and parenting. Here, she shares how Reading Force became a meaningful part of their family life. “Over [...]

We’re really happy to announce that Eimear has joined the Reading Force team as Resource & Social Media Coordinator. Welcome Eimear! Here she shares some favourite books and how she first heard about Reading Force… Can you tell us how/when you first heard about RF? I first came across Reading Force back in 2020. I remember it really well, actually! My husband was on a 6 month deployment and I had two little toddlers at the time. A neighbour told us about Reading Force and I saw they were doing [...]

We are delighted to offer a really special evening of celebration and commemoration – in Aldershot, where Reading Force began. At the Prince Consort’s Library, Knollys Road, Aldershot from 6-7.30pm on Tuesday 11th November, we will join Dame Penelope Keith, Janet Ellis and Ben Tugendhat (trumpeter) for a special evening. Tickets can be obtained here: A really special evening of celebration and commemoration Tickets, Tue, Nov 11, 2025 at 6:00 PM | Eventbrite The event is in aid of the charity and there will be a retiring collection. Dame Penelope Keith and Janet Ellis will read from a selection of poetry and [...]

In this blog founder and director of Reading Force, Alison Baverstock, recalls her personal experience in young adulthood of just how powerful getting a family story down on paper can be… My grandmother would often regale us with the story of her parents. Her mother (my great-grandmother) had eloped, realising that her strict parents would never accept her choice of husband. My grandmother’s grandmother, was furious and never saw her daughter again. But there was a mysterious older man who turned up at her parents’ house at regular intervals. His presence was never explained [...]

A big welcome to our guest blogger Alison David, Consumer Insight Director at HarperCollins Children’s Books and Farshore. In this blog Alison talks about the decline in reading to children and highlights the magic that happens when parents and carers do read to children… Everyone knows it’s important to read to children, but somehow in recent years it has been slipping back, so that now fewer than half (41%) of pre-schoolers are read to every day (down from 64% in 2012). It’s the same pattern with 5-7s: just over a third are read to daily, down [...]

We are over the moon to welcome Janet Ellis - TV presenter, podcaster, and author - as our new Reading Force patron. In this blog Janet recalls the comfort of books in her military childhood and beyond…AUTOBAHN. That was one of first words I remember reading aloud, as we zipped along a German motorway. I was four years old, sitting in the back of the family car, my Sapper dad at the wheel. It was a revelation that words could somehow get into my head and I could make sense of them. The anodyne contents of the Janet [...]

Former Royal Air Force Chinook Pilot and Training Captain, Leon Fisher, served from 1999 until 2015, completing five tours in Afghanistan. His service included high-stakes roles such as being part of the Medical Emergency Response Team (MERT), tasked with retrieving injured soldiers from the battlefield. After being medically discharged due to PTSD in 2015, Leon began a new chapter—this time, supporting others by joining military charity, Vector24. We spoke to him about how he heard about Reading Force and how it has transformed his own reading journey with his young daughter. Discovering Reading Force Though vaguely aware [...]