The ‘Books about Town’ project launches today, organised by the National Literacy Trust with Wild In Art, and sees fifty unique benches which have been sculptured to look like an open book and each one celebrates a book with links to London. Spread across central London they have been arranged into four walking trails, so get your Merrell walking shoes on and see how many you can visit.

The Bookbenches have been created by a mix of local artists and famous names in order to celebrate the capital’s literary heritage and to be able to read for enjoyment. A range of iconic books for both children and adults is featured such as Peter Pan, Paddington Bear and The Railway Children from childrens literature and 1984,The Day of The Triffids and The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to The Universe from more adult genres.

The benches have been placed so that four trails can be followed across Greenwich, City of London, Riverside and Bloomsbury. The project runs until the 15th September when the benches will be removed and go up for auction at an event to raise funds for the Literacy Trust, which takes place at the Southbank Centre. The funds that the trust raises are used to tackle illiteracy in deprived communities across the UK.

New research released to mark the launch of this summer project shows that children’s enjoyment of books is on the increase again in 8-16 year olds and was based on a survey of 30,000 children. However, there is still work to do as this is the first increase the survey has seen in eight years and almost 40% of children said that they didn’t have a favorite book and a third said it was still difficult to find things to read

So why not hit the streets of London this summer and see how many of the fifty you can find, and how many of the books you have actually read.  Who knows, you just might find a new favourite book to enjoy.