Books About Town

Do you remember the Elephant Parade from a few years ago in 2010 in which colourful painted elephants were dotted around town? All over the place you stood a chance of discovering an elephant and then they assembled in the grounds of the Chelsea Hospital. I blogged about the elephants back then and took great pleasure in finding new ones - going elephant hunting in London was great fun!

I think I've found this years' summer vocation - bench hunting! Books About Town has commissioned a series of benches shaped like open books and painted them to reflect some of the great books associated with London. The website says:

Books about Town launched to the public today with benches shaped like open books popping up all over the capital for Londoners, families and visitors to find and enjoy. 

The BookBenches feature stories linked to London and are based on a range of iconic books from treasured children’s stories such as The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Peter Pan to classic adult titles including 1984 and The Day of the Triffids. 

The new Books about Town website also launched today with a range of exciting features, including family events, activities and quizzes, downloadable trail maps, artist profiles and information on each BookBench.

To mark the launch of Books about Town, the National Literacy Trust unveiled new research revealing that children’s enjoyment of reading has increased for the first time in eight years. 

This sounds like a great idea and should be fun tracking them down. The website even provides maps to help you find specific benches. I want to find the 'Mary Poppins' bench (Poppins was a great hero of the Olympic Opening Ceremony at London 2012) and '1984' and 'Mrs Dalloway' and 'Peter Pan' and 'The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe' with Mr Tumnus and Lucy and ...

... I hope no-one's using them as actual benches when I find them. That would be too disappointing!