A new Oxfam campaign #BooksChangeLives was launched at Hay Festival today by the Welsh-Cameroon author Eric Ngalle Charles.
The campaign aims to boost book sales in Oxfam shops around the country to raise money for the charity's life-changing work fighting poverty worldwide.
Many Hay Festival 2018 favourites - including Margaret Atwood, Paula Hawkins, Alex Jones and Victoria Hislop - have donated signed copies of their books to Oxfam in support of the #BooksChangeLives campaign.
To be in with a chance of winning these signed books, Hay Festival goers, authors and members of the public are invited to share the books that changed their lives online using hashtag #BooksChangeLives. The content will be counted as entry to the prize draw and the winner will be announced on Sunday 3rd June 2018. More details can be found here.
Dolly Alderton, who spoke about her new memoir 'Everything I Know About Love' at the festival on Saturday 26th May, picked 'The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing' by Melissa Banks. “It taught me so much about men and women - about love and relationship dynamics and the myths we're fed about romance” she said.
Tracy Chevalier, best known for 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' opted for Restoration by Rose Tremain. “It was the first modern historical novel I read that made me think that history IS relevant to today! I've been writing historical novels ever since” she said.
Many other Hay Festival authors - joined by publishers Penguin Random House, Harper Collins, Hachette UK, Faber and Faber, Bloomsbury, Pavilion, Pan Macmillan, Profile Books and Sort of Books - will be together donating thousands of books to Oxfam in celebration of the campaign.
Andrew Horton, Oxfam Trading Director, said: "Oxfam is so grateful for this overwhelming show of support by so many talented and generous people in the book world. We estimate that the thousands of books donated to Oxfam by authors and our friends in the publishing industry could raise over £25,000 from sales in Oxfam shops. These valuable book donations and the sales they generate really will change the lives of people who desperately need help."
The money raised from Oxfam books sales bring clean water, food and shelter to people living in refugee camps. It sends girls to school, fights for women to be paid a fair wage in decent working conditions and helps men and women farmers acquire the skills and materials they need to feed their families and work their way out of poverty.
Andrew Franklin, Founder and Managing Director, Profile Books, said: "Oxfam has many friends in the book world, who support Oxfam's essential work in some of the most difficult environments on earth. It is a noble organisation delivering life-saving aid like clean water to the world's most profoundly disadvantaged people. That's why Profile Books, along with other publishers, has donated thousands of books to Oxfam to sell in its shops and raise much needed cash. I'm glad we can demonstrate our support for Oxfam in such a practical way. And we will continue to do so as long as the need is there."