The Chiswick Book Festival is to help blind and partially-sighted people enjoy Rosamund Lupton's best-selling novel, Sister. A donation from the 2010 Festival to the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) will fund Sister's production as a Talking Book. It will be available later in the year.

The Chiswick writer became the fastest-selling new author in the history of WH Smith, after being backed by the Richard and Judy online book club.

Sister was also chosen as Radio 4's Book at Bedtime and spent 14 weeks on the Sunday Times best-seller list. It was published in September last year and is already on its 11th reprint.

"We're delighted to be helping Talking Books widen access to the writing of a Chiswick author, whose first novel has been such a runaway success" said Torin Douglas, director of the Chiswick Book Festival.

The RNIB is one of three book-related charities supported by the Chiswick Book Festival, which is run as non-profit-making community event. The Festival's contribution in 2009 was used to sponsor the recording of Sandi Toksvig's children's book The Littlest Viking, and Claire Tomalin's The Invisible Woman. Claire Tomalin spoke about the book at the 2010 Festival.

The 2010 Festival also supported InterAct Reading Service, which provides a reading service for stroke patients in hospital, and The Letterbox Club, which works with local authorities to send regular book parcels to children aged 7 to 11 in foster families, to improve their educational outlook. All three charities received a donation of £1,244 from the Festival, as did St Michael & All Angels church, which hosts the Festival.

January 24, 2011