A new campaign to encourage older generations to engage with reading and writing has been launched by charitable organisation Booktrust.
It’s hoped that the government funded campaign will persuade a greater number of elderly people to discover the joys of creative reading and writing, the beeb reports.
Backed by Sir Andrew Motion and Marina Lewycka – whose very enjoyable novel A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian was nominated for the Orange Prize when she was 59 – the project is targeting people over 60, a large proportion of whom say they are increasingly comfortable with the internet.
Research from Bookbite found that 55 per cent of the over 60s questioned said the internet was a crucial part of their lives, while 31 per cent were keen to go online to publish short stories and join book clubs. Sounds to me as though the silver surfers are on the move and ready to make their writing digital. And I’m all for it, although surely it only means one thing for me right now – more competition! 😉
Lynsey May 
Yes very good news Lynsey! I have done my utmost to get my own mother interested in the internet, but to no avail. The elderly can pay bills instead of going out in bad weather – even order groceries and get them delivered to their doors. Not only that, they can find sites that specialise in their interests, read and write books, make friends, join forums and book holidays, so they don’t have to be cut off with only their P.C. for company. A good thing I think.
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I agree with you for sure – the easier various interfaces and applications become for older folks the better.
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