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Edinburgh festival book lovers to attempt reading record

Hundreds set to participate in reading relay of Theresa Breslin's Prisoner in Alcatraz, at this year's Edinburgh International Book Festival, in an attempt to smash the world record
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Theresa Breslin
Theresa Breslin’s Prisoner in Alcatraz will be the vehicle for a reading-chain record attempt at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Photograph: Murdo Macleod

Book lovers at the Edinburgh International Book Festival are hoping to smash the world record for the longest reading chain later this month, when hundreds of people are set to gather for a reading of Theresa Breslin's novel Prisoner in Alcatraz.

  1. Prisoner in Alcatraz
  2. by Theresa Breslin
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The current reading relay record is held by Vienna, where 290 book lovers took part in a reading chain on 26 September last year. But organisers have already signed up more than 100 readers for the Scottish record attempt, including local authors the Mulgray twins, Joyce Holmes, Charlie James and illustrator Julia Lacome. They are aiming to attract 350 for the 19 August event, which will be hosted by Sighthill Library.

The reading chain will involve each participant reading one sentence from Breslin's book aloud. Prisoner in Alcatraz, a young adult title, tells of a teenager, Marty, who is imprisoned in Alcatraz after getting involved in a friend's plan to rob a bank.

Breslin, winner of the Carnegie medal, said she was "thrilled" that her novel would be part of a record-breaking attempt. "I've been a fan of the Guinness Book of Records forever," said the writer. "It's great to see Edinburgh Libraries encouraging reading and literacy in such a fun way. I am so looking forward to meeting everyone involved and can't wait to hear all those different voices reading out my story."

Janet Smyth, the Edinburgh International Book Festival's children's director, said the event – a partnership between the festival, Edinburgh Libraries and Sighthill Library – was "a great way to highlight all that libraries do for their local communities".

Breslin, a former librarian, has been leading a campaign to save Scottish libraries from government cuts, handing a statement to the Scottish parliament in February saying that "in a society experiencing a widening gap in household incomes, our libraries, in the great tradition on which they were first inaugurated and enshrined in the law of the land, provide access for all".

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