Literature in London with Books about Town

While Rory was sunning himself in Corfu with his girlfriend, Juliana, and her family, Dougie and I nipped down to London last weekend for a little break of our own. We did lots of sightseeing, a bit of shopping (new bag!) and just enjoyed being together, practising for what it’s going to be like when Rory goes to university next weekend (pass the hankies!)

I had heard about the Books about Town project: the National Literacy Trust working with Wild in Art to bring literature to the streets of London. Trails of benches, shaped as open books, have been decorated by professional illustrators and local artists. There are four trails – Bloomsbury, City, Greenwich and Riverside – so you can pick a trail and even download a quiz for each one. Of course, we didn’t know this and had wondered why we hadn’t spotted any benches whilst shopping in Oxford Street. The next day, as we sauntered over Tower Bridge to the south side of the river, we found ourselves on the Riverside Trail. It was a wet day, which was in our favour: I could take lots of photographs as no-one was sitting on the benches. We crossed back over the river on the Millennium Bridge and stumbled on part of the City trail too.

If you fancy having a guess at which book is represented on each bench, here is a little quiz for you. See if you can get 10 out of 10. No cheating!

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