The Big Red Read initiative, organised by Redbridge Libraries, called for readers to vote for their favourite reads from a list of 45 books. Shadow of Death, by Alison Joseph came in fourth!

The Big Red Read was launched on World Book Day back in March with a list of 45 fiction, non-fiction and Quick Read titles selected by Redbridge Library staff. Throughout the summer, readers in Redbridge busied themselves reading as many of the titles as possible and voting took place in August. (To see all the books on the list click here.)

The winners were announced this week (Monday 19th October) at the Big Red Read Awards Event at Fullwell Cross Library.

Kate Mosse won the Quick Reads award for her book The Cave.

Melanie McGrath won in the Non-Fiction category with her popular book Hopping.

Bernardine Evaristo’s novel Blonde Roots scooped the prize in the Fiction category (and won the most votes overall) narrowly beating Hema Macherla, Jean Fullerton and our very own Alison Joseph.

Alison Joseph received a special mention for her support of Big Red Reads – and here she is receiving flowers from Nick Dobson (Principal Librarian for Community and Reader Development at Redbridge Library)