The National Literary Trust is running a new project this summer: Books about Town. Hoping to encourage readers to sit down with a good book, books as diverse as Mary Poppins, The Wind in the Willows and Agatha Christie’s various Poirot adventures are being re-imagined as a limited series of eye-catching benches dotted about London. The plan is to then sell them off at a later date to raise money for the Trust, who are an independent charity dedicated to tackling illiteracy.

The project’s website went live on 2nd July include maps of where to find these wonderful pieces. And it’s not just about benches: there will be a series of events taking place such as an attempt to break the world record for the most number of people dressed as Sherlock Holmes, next to the Arthur Conan Doyle-inspired bench outside UCL. Next to her bench by St Paul’s, Mary Poppins will be doing a book giveaway and the cast of 1984 theatre production will be appearing by their bench in August.

The bench I’ll be hunting down is Paddington Bear by A&B’s Michael Bond:

So Londoners keep your eyes peeled this summer and try to find a literary bench! Now where’s my deerstalker. . .

Sophie, Editorial Administrator