Â鶹ԼÅÄ

Press Releases & Press Packs

18.10.03

FACTUAL & ARTS TV

The Big Read Top 21 Revealed

The Big Read Top 21 favourite novels - as voted by the public - and the celebrity advocates who will be championing the books are, in alphabetical order:

In April 2003, members of the public were asked to nominate their favourite work of fiction.

Nearly 140,000 people voted and The Big Read Top 100 novels were announced in May in alphabetical order.

The 21 most popular – based on those votes - were announced in The Big Read Top 21 Revealed tonight (Saturday 18 October) on Â鶹ԼÅÄ TWO.

Clive Anderson counted down the Top 100 from numbers 100 to 22, before revealing the top 21 books in random order.

Executive Producer Mark Harrison says: "The Top 21 is a fascinating insight in to the public's reading preferences and the list offers something for everyone, with an eclectic mixture of classics, contemporary novels and childrenÂ’s books.

"As the advocates make their cases, we hope viewers will be inspired to explore new books - or perhaps return to titles they read years ago - and play their part in deciding the nation's favourite novel."

Clive Anderson now presents seven weekly programmes, each featuring three novels from the shortlist.

Over the course of the series, the 21 works of fiction, each championed by their celebrity advocate, compete for the public's votes.

Viewers can vote for their best-loved novel in the Top 21 in the following ways:

Telephone: 0901 522 9000 (calls cost 15p)

SMS: 86200 (by texting the title of the chosen novel. This costs no more than 12p per message)

Online: at

Interactive TV: By pressing the red button on the digital remote

In next week's show - on Saturday 25 October - Meera Syal argues for Pride and Prejudice; William Hague champions Birdsong; and explorer Benedict Allen puts the case for His Dark Materials.

Each week, Clive Anderson summarises the arguments and follows the voting as the books vie for the title of the Nation's Favourite Book – to be revealed in the final programme on 13 December.

The books from The Big Read Top 100 that missed out on the 21, in order of popularity, are:

22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling

23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets by JK Rowling

24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban by JK Rowling

25. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien

26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

27. Middlemarch by George Eliot

28. A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving

29. The Grapes Of Wrath by John Steinbeck

30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker by Jacqueline Wilson

32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

33. The Pillars Of The Earth by Ken Follett

34. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

36. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

37. A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute

38. Persuasion by Jane Austen

39. Dune by Frank Herbert

40. Emma by Jane Austen

41. Anne Of Green Gables by LM Montgomery

42. Watership Down by Richard Adams

43. The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald

44. The Count Of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

45. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

46. Animal Farm by George Orwell

47. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

48. Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

49. Goodnight Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian

50. The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher

51. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

52. Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck

53. The Stand by Stephen King

54. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

55. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

56. The BFG by Roald Dahl

57. Swallows And Amazons by Arthur Ransome

58. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

59. Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer

60. Crime And Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

61. Noughts And Crosses by Malorie Blackman

62. Memoirs Of A Geisha by Arthur Golden

63. A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

64. The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough

65. Mort by Terry Pratchett

66. The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton

67. The Magus by John Fowles

68. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

69. Guards! Guards! By Terry Pratchett

70. Lord Of The Flies by William Golding

71. Perfume by Patrick Süskind

72. The Ragged Trousered Philantrhopists by Robert Tressell

73. Night Watch by Terry Pratchett

74. Matilda by Roald Dahl

75. Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding

76. The Secret History by Donna Tartt

77. The Woman In White by Wilkie Collins

78. Ulysses by James Joyce

79. Bleak House by Charles Dickens

80. Double Act by Jacqueline Wilson

81. The Twits by Roald Dahl

82. I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith

83. Holes by Louis Sachar

84. Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake

85. The God Of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

86. Vicky Angel by Jacqueline Wilson

87. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

88. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

89. Magician by Raymond E Feist

90. On The Road by Jack Kerouac

91. The Godfather by Mario Puzo

92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear by Jean M Auel

93. The Colour Of Magic by Terry Pratchett

94. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

95. Katherine by Anya Seton

96. Kane And Abel by Jeffrey Archer

97. Love In The Time Of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez

98. Girls In Love by Jacqueline Wilson

99. The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot

100. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

Notes to Editors

More information about the project can be found on The Big Read website

Voting Rules

Viewers can vote for their favourite novel in The Big Read Top 21 to establish Britain's best-loved book.

The voting period runs from the end of the Top 21 programme on 18 October until the final programme on 13 December.

The Top 21 has been compiled from the Top 100 novels, as voted for by the public and announced in May.

Only one book per author – the highest scoring – has been allowed in to the Top 21.

The final top 21 has been determined by "shuffling" the results to enable this to happen.

For example, if an author has two books in the Top 21, the lowest scoring of these two books will be moved down the list to place number 22 and the number 22 book will enter the Top 21 at number 21.

Viewers are invited to cast their vote once a week.

Once all of the advocates have made their appeals, the shortlist will be cut down to the top five rating books and voting will continue on these into the final show.

The books will retain their votes from previous weeks.

There will be mechanisms in place to stop automated and block voting.

The Â鶹ԼÅÄ reserves the right to disqualify any mass orchestrated vote by an individual or organisation and will discount those votes or books accordingly.

Background details on voting during previous stages:

From Saturday 5 April to Saturday 19 April, viewers were asked to nominate their best-loved book. These nominations determined the Top 100.

Only novels were eligible to be nominated (non-fiction, short stories, poetry or plays did not qualify).

Novels could also be from anywhere in the world, as long as they had been translated into English, and from any era.

Viewers voted for their single, best-loved book.

The only exception was for continuous stories such as trilogies or quartets that have been published in a single bound volume, eg Lord Of The Rings, The Alexandria Quartet.

Viewers could not nominate/vote for a collection of books that may have been compiled in a box set.

Nominations/votes had to be for an individual book only, eg Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone and not Harry Potter.

Related releases

The Big Read - the search for Britain's best-loved novel enters its final chapter (02.10.03)

British novels dominate public's top 100 (17.05.03)

The Big Read television special to reveal Nation's Top 100 books (16.04.03)

The Big Read - Britain's biggest ever reading campaign (14.03.03)

Freeview offers the Â鶹ԼÅÄ's eight television channels, interactive services from Â鶹ԼÅÄi, as well as 11 national Â鶹ԼÅÄ radio networks.

BACK TO THE TOP

PRINTABLE VERSION