Fewer people are reading than ever before in the United Kingdom, and the streaming service Netflix is stepping in to do something about it.

The National Literacy Trust’s 2025 Annual Literacy Survey found that children’s enjoyment of reading had fallen to its lowest recorded level, but research shows that books that are linked to films or television series can encourage infrequent or non-readers to pick up a novel and try to read. According to Nielsen BookData, 12 per cent of adult fiction bought by occasional readers was discovered through, or chosen because of, a film or TV adaptation.

The National Literacy Trust’s 2025 survey drew 114,970 responses from young people aged 8 to 18. Of them, 32.7% said they enjoyed reading in their free time — a 36% fall since the Trust first asked in 2005, and the lowest share it has recorded.

Netflix is joining forces with The British Library to help encourage reluctant readers by donating dedicated funding to support the British Library’s literary conservation and archives, this new partnership will see collections of books that have been adapted into Netflix films and series donated to 100 public libraries across the UK.

This includes books like Frankenstein, Pride and Prejudice, Heartstopper, One Day, The Thursday Murder Club and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which have been adapted into films or series for the platform.

The Thursday Murder Club starred Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley and Celia Imrie and was released August 2025, adapted from Richard Osman’s first novel. Heartstopper is a live-action series taken from Alice Oseman’s graphic novels, adapted for the screen by Oseman herself, and One Day was based on David Nicholls’s 2009 novel, released in 2024 as a fourteen episode series rather than a film.

Netflix and the British Library will host a program of events also streamed to libraries across the country, giving audiences the opportunity to hear more about how books are brought to the screen. Stars from The Thursday Murder Club and The Seven Dials Mystery have already held Q&A sessions.

On Monday, actor Florence Pugh and Showrunner, Writer and Executive Producer Zoe Kazan participated in a panel discussion for their upcoming series East of Eden, based on the John Steinbeck novel. It will be available to stream on October 1st.

“Every great adaptation starts with a great story. We are proud to bring these stories to audiences all over the world, but we also know the experience does not have to end when the credits roll,” said Anne Mensah, Vice President of Content, U.K. at Netflix in a press release.

Netflix will also provide dedicated funding to support the British Library’s literary conservation and archives. Like the Library of Congress in the United States, The British Library is a legal deposit library, meaning it takes a copy of effectively everything published in the UK and Ireland. 

Helen Schulte, the British Library’s Head of Culture Programmes said in the release, “We’re so grateful to Netflix for partnering with the Library and providing much needed philanthropic support for conservation, helping to preserve the treasures we care for as the U.K.’s national library.”