Philip Davis is Emeritus Professor of Literature and Psychology at the University of Liverpool, UK and was the director of CRILS (Centre for Research into Reading, Literature and Society). Fiona Magee combines the three main strands of this book: research into literary reading, the compilation of interviews and films of case histories, and the practice of shared reading.

'I read Reading:Arts for Health with deep interest and pleasure, as will anyone who believes in sustaining a culture which recognises the indispensability of serious reading. There is no piety or nostalgia or wishful thinking in the authors' analysis. They provide expert practical advice as to how to engage, transformationally, new readers in situations that others might regard as irretrievably disadvantaged. The combination of passion and practicality in this book will appeal both to the general reader and to the professional.'

• Chapter 1. Why Reading?Chapter 2. What Helps? Chapter 3. Who Can Benefit? Chapter 4. How to Engage with Reading? Chapter 5. What Can Professionals Do to Help? Chapter 6. What are the Challenges and How to Overcome Them Chapter 7. Useful Links and Further Reading