Read was awarded the Sir Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize for "The Junkers"; the Hawthornden Prize and Somerset Maugham Award for "Monk Dawson"; the Thomas More Medal for "Alive"; the Enid McLeod Award for "The Free Frenchman"; and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for "A Season in the West". Read’s novels "A Married Man" (1984) and "The Free Frenchman" (1988) were adapted for television; "Alive" was made into a feature film by the director Frank Marshal in 1993; and "Monk Dawson" by Tom Waller in 1998.