Everyone agrees that reading is ‘a good thing’, but how should we encourage it? With dozens of initiatives under threat from public spending cuts, it is a brave person who decides to set up a new charity promoting reading for pleasure.

Angie Prysor Jones has taken up the challenge with the launch of Bookfeast, a charity dedicated to encouraging people in Oxfordshire to enjoy reading.

She said: “Reading opens up a wealth of opportunities, developing knowledge, feeding the imagination and broadening our view of the world and our ability to interact with it.”

She points to the fact that poor readers are twice as likely to be unemployed at 30, and more likely to suffer ill-health and depression.

As co-founder of the Oxford Literary Festival, she is aware of the contrast between the city's strong literary culture and the areas where 40 per cent of seven to 11-year-olds have reading skills below national guidelines.

“There are the wonderful libraries and colleges and then areas not far from the city centre with very poor literacy levels.”

Bookfeast is backing Oxford's bid to be declared World Book Capital in 2014.

“That would allow us to bring these extremes much closer together and open up the resources to a much greater range of people,” she said.

She started organising events for schools and disadvantaged groups 12 years ago as a spin-off from the festival, from which she has now parted company.

“My son was five at the time, so I was interested in education and out-reach, and it developed so that I realised that was where my interests lie,” she said.

“The festival has developed fantastically — it is now a national event, but my heart was back in the community. I want to work with the groups who would not normally go to a literary festival like that.

“The other thing is that it was very difficult to have a relationship with schools when you are popping up once a year. You have to get to know the school literary co-ordinators, and Bookfeast will operate all year round.”

Bookfeast's schools’ festival next March will have 25 events over four days, in the University Museum of Natural History, and in the Story Museum due to open in Pembroke Street in 2014— another Oxford project aimed at encouraging reading and storytelling, which is aiming to raise an incredible £14m.

Story Museum is one of Bookfeast's partners — not a rival — and Ms Prysor Jones is aiming to raise a modest £50,000 to extend Bookfeast's work to older people.

Its first project, Lunchboox, part-funded by charitable trusts, ran reading groups in five Oxfordshire primary schools. Sponsored by Oxford publishers Pearson and Oxford University Press, the pilot scheme has been a runaway success, said Ms Prysor Jones.

“We have kids talking about books in the playground, telling their friends about them. The clubs are not run by teachers, and that's crucial, but the teachers love them.

“A lot of teachers don't have the time or inclination to keep up with the huge volume of children's literature that's being published, but schools don't want to spend their precious budget on books that they are not sure the children will like. To have a book recommended is very powerful — we all know that.”

Now she is hoping to do the same in old people’s homes, day centres and sheltered housing schemes for the elderly, with a scheme called TeaBooks.

“We have done a pilot, and they absolutely love it. If you are an old person in a day centre, you might not have anything in common with the person sitting next to you, except the fact that you are old. A book group gives you something to talk about.

She added: “The logistics seemed daunting — getting eight copies from the library, and finding reading racks because large print books are too heavy for some people. Once you get through the hoops, you open up a whole new world for people.”

The credit crunch has caused Bookfeast to change its business plan in a way that Ms Prysor Jones feels fits in with the 'Big Society'.

“We are fundraising hard and I'm hoping to carry on next year. Our ideal would have been to put a facilitator in to run the group. Now we are looking for volunteers who we will train and give lots of support to.”

Bookfeast is run on a shoestring, she said working with Development Partners, a professional fundraising company based in Kirtlington.

As well as the Story Museum, partners include the Pegasus theatre and CIAO arts project. She fits Bookfeast in between her part-time health promotion job and other work.

But she has ambitious plans for big events featuring popular children's authors, starting with Andy Stanton, author of the Mr Gum books, who starred at the launch event at Oxford Playhouse earlier this month.

Her aims is to create a ‘books buzz’ allowing reading to conquer all the electronic gadgets competing for children's attention.

She said: “What we want to do is create readers. That's our overarching aim.”

o Contact: 01865 514149, www.bookfeast.net