Author Cottrell-Boyce holds summit to warn about children's happiness

Best-selling author Frank Cottrell-Boyce, the current children's laureate, is to spearhead a campaign to tackle a "recession in children's happiness" that he believes is caused by a decline in reading at a young age.

The writer has organised a summit in Liverpool on Wednesday, at which he will call on the government to "stand up and give a visible sign this country values its children".

Cottrell-Boyce, whose books include Millions and Cosmic, will warn that while children in the UK may fare well in reading league tables, reading for pleasure is in decline, leading to "less chance of [them] being happy".

The Reading Rights Summit will also hear from fellow authors Cressida Cowell and Michael Rosen, two of his predecessors as children's laureate.

A 2022 BookTrust survey of over 2,000 low-income families in England, Wales and Northern Ireland found less than half of children under seven are being read a bedtime story.

Disadvantaged children who achieve highly at the end of primary school are twice as likely to have been read to at home in their early years compared with their peers, the charity found.

Cottrell-Boyce described the "invisible privilege" of being read to from a young age as "not something that people have seen the importance of, and if you have it, then you're at a huge advantage over other people".

Screen time is also an issue. In his speech, he will say he has heard about some children who "instead of turning the pages, try to swipe them or make the pictures grow bigger with their fingers" because they hadn't encountered a book before starting school.

He will also say: "Yes, it's important for educational attainment. Yes, DCMS (Department for Culture, Media and Sport), it's the most crucial - and most democratic - part of our cultural heritage.

"Shared reading is an effective, economic health intervention, so yes, it's essential, [Health Secretary] Wes Streeting, to mental health, to bonding, to attachment, to creating a situation where parents and carers can give the best, the most joyous start in life to our children."