Read is a practising Catholic and has served on the board of Catholic charities such as Aid to the Church in Need (UK) and the National Catholic Library. He was Master and remains Vice-President of the Catholic Writers' Guild of England and Wales. He has served on the governing bodies of the Institute of Contemporary Arts (1971-1975), the Society of Authors (1973-1976) and the Royal Society of Literature (2001-2007). He is married to Emily Boothby (of the Boothby baronets). They have two sons, including Albert Read (executive), and two daughters. Read lives in London. In 2005, he correctly predicted the election of Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI. In Read's 1988 WWII novel "The Free Frenchman", the protagonist's Catholic faith plays an important part in political decisions and dilemmas during the German occupation of France, as well as in the protagonist's tangled relations with the women in his life.