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BBC reveals University’s research into most popular adventure stories

23/04/2021
BBC reveals University’s research into most popular adventure stories

In a new article to mark ‘World Book Night’, BBC Arts shared research from the University of Wolverhampton that is shedding light onto what motivates readers to seek out adventure stories.

It outlines how the Novel Perceptions research team noticed two clear trends after studying more than 3,000 recommendations from 1,500 participants to a survey for BBC’s engagement project Novels That Shaped Our World.

The 11 most popular adventure writers, as chosen by the survey participants are: Douglas Adams; Enid Blyton; Frank Herbert; C. S. Lewis; Terry Pratchett; Philip Pullman; Arthur Ransome; J. K. Rowling; Robert Louis Stevenson; J.R.R. Tolkien and Jules Verne.

Professors Sebastian Groes and Karina van Dalen-Oskam who are behind the research would like as many people as possible to take part in their ongoing research project, the Reader Review. In particular, they are keen to see whether the patterns they have noticed in adventure stories are replicated in other categories within contemporary fiction.

“Do readers still return to favourite childhood stories to understand politics, family or other worlds?”, Groes wondered, “or is it simply the case that children’s authors tell the best adventure stories?”

You can find out how to take part in the project here.

Read the full BBC Arts article.

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