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Book reviews: Nottingham City of Literature's Big City Reads giveaway 2026

Big City Reads is a free book giveaway campaign run by Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature to encourage reading for pleasure among young people in Notts. Returning for its fourth year, they’ll be giving away 2250 books this summer. Here, members of Nottingham City of Literature’s Youth Selection Panel have reviewed some of their favourites from the shortlist. 

Locating Lawrence: May 1924

The Great Strike and rise of fascism threaten to unsettle Lawrence’s Tuscan calm...

Locating Lawrence: April 1926

‘It is queer, this Fascist movement: one wonders what the end will be.’

Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature's Youth Advisory Board Celebrate the Launch of their Poetry Pamphlet

Join Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature's Youth Advisory Board as they celebrate the launch of their first poetry pamphlet on the 12th of April

Locating Lawrence: March 1926

Capri in 1926 was decadent, cosmopolitan, and bohemian, providing refuge for writers and intellectuals from the ugliness of modernity...

Lockdown Literature: Fictionalising the Pandemic

An interview with Crystal Mah-Wing about the Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature Map

Nottingham was awarded UNESCO status as a City of Literature in December 2015. As part of their celebrations to mark this decade milestone, Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature, the University of Nottingham and Visit Nottingham worked together on an AHRC funded research bid to bring the map to Nottingham.

As part of the project, Research Affiliate Crystal Mah-Wing was employed to help create a map, showcasing our cities best literary locations, for locals and tourists alike. We spoke to Crystal about the process, the team she worked with and what to expect when it’s out at the end of March…

Locating Lawrence: February 1926

Lawrence is well stocked up with vino, but the weather is as ‘dismal as Hades.’ Perhaps it's time for another adventure...

Nottingham City of Literature Call For Young Readers For Big City Reads 2026.

Are you, or do you know, a young person aged between 14-25 who loves reading and wants to give back to their community? If so read on...

Nottingham celebrates ten years as a UNESCO City of Literature with a spectacular gala on 1 December

In 2025, Nottingham turns the page on a remarkable chapter; ten years as a UNESCO City of Literature and the charity is throwing a party worthy of Nottingham’s words!

Locating Lawrence: July 1925

Most people like an ice cream and book on the beach, unlike D.H Lawrence…

Perfect Ten: a retrospective on Nottingham City of Literature's decade in business

Readers, prepare your confetti. 2025 marks our first decade as a UNESCO City of Literature - with many more, we hope, to come. Since 2015, Nottingham City of Literature has been honouring their commitment to building better futures with words, especially for our young people. This has included working with local educational institutions to enhance literacy, facilitating career events for blossoming creatives, and fostering global connections with Nottingham’s UNESCO sister cities. We took a look at what they’ve achieved so far….

Locating Lawrence: June 1925

Lawrence never felt ‘less literary’ than when he was milking his cow...

Locating Lawrence: May 1925

Lawrence is living the good life on the farm with a cow, chickens and hummingbirds for company...

Locating Lawrence: April 1925

Lawrence is a man of endless energy, and so being bed-ridden and reliant on others impacts his mood...

Have You Got What It Takes To Be Nottingham’s New Nature Poet Laureate?

Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature has announced an open call for a Nature Poet Laureate...

Locating Lawrence: March 1925

Lawrence is unable to travel after receiving his first official diagnosis of tuberculosis...

Locating Lawrence: February 1924

February is a rotten month for the Lawrences as they struggle with various illnesses.

Locating Lawrence: December 1924

Lawrence encounters the first populist presidential campaign in Mexico’s history and a scorpion...

Locating Lawrence: November 1924

Parrots that taunt dogs and a railway journey that would frighten Michael Portillo…. 

Locating Lawrence: October 1924

Lawrence feels the urge to head southwards to Mexico where a mammoth drinking session awaits him.

Big City Reads book reviews: Electric Life

For the third instalment of our Big City Reads reviews - part of a campaign run by Nottingham City of Literature to provide free books for local young people - Mia gives us her thoughts on Electric Life by Rachel Delahaye. A gripping science-fiction tale, the book according to Mia well and truly allows the reader to escape into another world.

Big City Reads book reviews: Vern: Custodian of the Universe

Big City Reads is a campaign ran by Nottingham City of Literature to get thousands of free books in the hands and hearts of local young people. There are four different books on offer, so we asked young people to write a review of each one. Here, Daniella Hoyland gives us her thoughts on Vern: Custodian of the Universe.

Theatre Review: Where I Belong

Lakeside Arts hosts poems and stories from two UNESCO Cities of Literature, Nottingham and Baghdad...

Locating Lawrence: June 1924

Will 12 bottles of smuggled whisky and five wild horses tame D.H. Lawrence’s rage? Probably not. Here's what D.H. Lawrence was up to in June 1924