Exhibition: Books and the People. Opening up access to books and reading #Go All In
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“I say that this revolution has been for some time overdue, because from one aspect it is, of course, only part of the great change in selling policy which some have called the ‘democratisation of production’. […] Books are only just beginning to feel the influence which, in the course of a generation, has brought gramophone records, silk stockings, foreign travel, and smoked salmon (to take four examples at random) within the reach of small purses.”
(Margaret Cole, Books and the People, 1938)
One hundred years ago, a group of publishers, writers, businesses, and libraries were challenging who had access to books while defending the importance of reading for pleasure. In her Books and the People (1938), socialist Margaret Cole described the new book clubs and commercial high street libraries of the 1920s and ’30s as the “opening stages of a real revolution […] in the world of English-language book production”.
This exhibition looks at a moment before book-buying was possible for most people. We look at some of the changes interwar that made access to new books easier, more convenient, and sometimes cheaper, helping to develop more democratic, shared cultures of reading. We also include examples of everyday printed ephemera that book clubs and societies produced and that tell us about how access to books was encouraged and promoted.
It is curated by Nicola Wilson, Sue Walker and Emma Minns and will be held in the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, University of Reading (Whiteknights Campus), RG6 6BZ. It is open from 30 March to 29 May 2026, Monday to Wednesday only, from 10 am to 4 pm.
Group visits can be made by appointment. Please email lpgdc@reading.ac.uk.
The exhibition is part of the National Year of Reading National Year of Reading 2026 | Go All In initiative. 2026 is the National Year of Reading, a Department for Education scheme supported by the National Literacy Trust, which aims to tackle a decline in reading enjoyment and reconnect people of all ages with reading as a relevant and rewarding activity.
There will be a CBCP exhibition event on Thursday 30th April 5-7pm. More information to follow soon.
