Big picture: Bench marks
Monday, October 20, 2014
Fifty unique 'BookBenches' designed by well-known artists and illustrators and inspired by books, including children's classics Peter Pan, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Lauren Child's Clarice Bean stories, have raised more than £250,000 at auction for the National Literacy Trust.
The Jeeves and Wooster bench painted by Gordon Allum achieved the highest sale at £9,500. The proceeds will help the trust to run literacy projects for disadvantaged children.
Speaking after the auction at the Southbank Centre, children's laureate Malorie Blackman, who had a BookBench based on her novel Noughts and Crosses, said, 'The benches are truly remarkable - they are a reminder of the many ways books can inspire us. Reading liberates your potential, it liberates life.'
