Photo 100 #366photos: World Book Night

23 April 2012

A truly auspicious day - my 100th photo, it's St George's Day, the 30th anniversary of the ZX Spectrum, and literary-themed World Book Night and Shakespeare's birthday. That's a lot of things to celebrate in one day.

And so a rather splendidly fitting evening to be in Canada Water Library celebrating World Book Night. I was volunteering for Book Aid, raising funds to send books to libraries in sub-Sahara Africa thereby increasing literacy, education, development and opportunities.

Sorry to all those who purchased a beer from the bar and had the pleasure of me serving them - the world's worst beer pourer around. Everyone loves a bit of foam, right?

Canada Water Library is a great space and much used by the local community. I was heartened to see so many people turn up and wait patiently to pick up their free World Book Night book. I also got to hear Iain Sinclair give an interesting talk about London, the notion of a 'wasteland' with a TS Eliot reading, the Olympics, Westfields shopping centres and community.

And that's the stand with the Silent Scribble Auction in the photo - a selection of authors and illustrators were asked to scribble on a piece of paper. The finished results are up for auction and you can still bid for your favourite until the end of the month. I rather like Alan Bennett and Quentin Blake's scribbles.