In December 2003, after months of debate, discussion and two nationwide public votes, Britain's favourite novel was revealed as J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

Throughout the project, the BBC worked with external partners to bring the project life off the air: the National Literacy Trust (NLT)/National Reading Campaign (NRC) promoted the project to schools and colleges, The Reading Agency worked with public libraries, and Booktrust promoted the project to independent readers and reading groups.

It began in April 2003 with a launch programme on BBC Two asking people to vote for their best-loved book of all time. For this first phase, the NLT produced resources for those working in educational settings around choosing and voting for a favourite book. 140,000 votes later The BBC Big Read Top 100 was born. The Top 100 led to a summer of reading activity with schools and colleges using the BBC's ten themes for the Top 100 and new resources from the NLT as a way into this rich and varied list. In October 2003 The Top 21 favourite books were announced. The NLT created further resources including balloon debates and more reading promotion activities to work alongside those 21.

In the focus week on the Big Read 1-6 December 2003, activity really picked up with dozens of schools up and down the country getting in touch with the Campaign to feedback on their reading promotion activity. Events included Big Read parties, balloon debates, special Big Read reading groups, Big Read areas in schools and school libraries including Big Read comfy chairs and beds, and assemblies, book swaps and much more. Downloads of resources for the BBC Big Read from the NRC over the year totaled 50,000. Total page views of BBC Big Read pages on the NRC site reached nearly 80,000.

To continue the exciting work around promoting reading for pleasure started in the Big Read, a set of resources are available to download (for primary, secondary, adult student and adult basic skills audiences) which draw together all of the best reading promotion activities from the series. These resources provide generic ideas for use beyond the Big Read.