50 books you must read... film adaptations was a major Book Marketing Society promotion which ran with The Guardian during May 2006

The Promotion

50 great books that have been made into film were chosen by a panel from The Guardian and the Book Marketing Society. The list was officially announced in a special supplement in The Guardian's Film and Music section on Friday 5th May, and readers (and the general public) voted for the favourite film adaptation of their choice, ie which book made the most successful film.

Click here for a list of the titles selected for this promotion.

The promotion was supported by all the major retailers, including Waterstones, Borders, WHSmith & Amazon.

• All 3 wholesalers & the BA endorsed & promoted the promotion to independent bookshops
• Libraries carried promotional material
• Sainsburys displayed the promotion in special units during a two week run in May
• The Guardian produced the supplement as an editorial featuring all 50 selected titles in equal measure and several specially commissioned feature articles on the subject, and these will be distributed to retailers as required
• All retailers/libraries were able to offer consumers run-ons of the supplement and voting cards and display the official posters
• Guardian readers and the general public were sent instore to vote via the voting cards or online at guardianunlimited - books
• The supplement was advertised within the Guardian twice before launch date
• The voting process was sponsored by National Book Tokens and the vote was advertised within the Guardian throughout May: National Book Tokens also generously offered a prize of £1,000 National Book Tokens to encourage voting response
• Midas PR ran a PR campaign throughout May utilising facts from a BML survey about the books and which people prefer - books or films
• Alice in Wonderland was the most popular book and Jaws was the most popular film.
• The winner of the national vote was announced at the Hay Festival on 2/3rd June. A Guardian debate will cover the result with leading film directors and writers on the panel
• Channel 4 covered the result and FILMFOUR screened the top 5 films over that weekend

For more details please email:
Alastair Giles - alastair@agile-ideas.com
Jo Henry - johenry@publishingnews.co.uk