23 April is St George's Day, the birthday of William Shakespeare, my father, and my niece Kelly amongst others. This year it was also my second World Book Night, this time as a giver of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. I managed to give away a good few copies of my box of 24 beautiful new paperback copies,
donated/sponsored by the BBC and the book publishing industry. We were asked not to give copies away to Book Club buddies and suchlike (all of whom have enormous book piles and patronise libraries, bookshops and charity shops already!) but to try and give them to people who may not normally buy books. I gave them to every likely looking person I came across on my way home from yoga that rainy night, and later in the week, including a delivery driver to the Chinese takeaway on Camden Road, youngsters filling shelves at the Halal supermarket and Tesco Express, a young Polish woman hurrying along with shopping bags, a guy in a hoodie in High Brooms, the barmaid at the High Brooms Tavern (two customers at the bar firmly but courteously refused copies!), a nice young man serving in Marino's Fish Bar, a waiter and customer in the Indian restaurant, two men leaning contemplatively out of a ground-floor window taking the night air (one of whom asked me if I was married!), a bus-driver at Speldhurst, and the friendly DHL deliveryman and postman at work, both of whom enjoyed last year's offering.
I said to all of them that the language could be Victorian and old-fashioned, but please to persevere with this favourite work of Dickens himself - it's a cracking story of the heights and depths of humanity, and anyone who can finish it without a good few tears must have skipped a lot, is all I can say! And a big thank you to World Book Night - it really does give you a huge warm glow to be lucky enough to give books away like this and see the look of delight on people's faces!
donated/sponsored by the BBC and the book publishing industry. We were asked not to give copies away to Book Club buddies and suchlike (all of whom have enormous book piles and patronise libraries, bookshops and charity shops already!) but to try and give them to people who may not normally buy books. I gave them to every likely looking person I came across on my way home from yoga that rainy night, and later in the week, including a delivery driver to the Chinese takeaway on Camden Road, youngsters filling shelves at the Halal supermarket and Tesco Express, a young Polish woman hurrying along with shopping bags, a guy in a hoodie in High Brooms, the barmaid at the High Brooms Tavern (two customers at the bar firmly but courteously refused copies!), a nice young man serving in Marino's Fish Bar, a waiter and customer in the Indian restaurant, two men leaning contemplatively out of a ground-floor window taking the night air (one of whom asked me if I was married!), a bus-driver at Speldhurst, and the friendly DHL deliveryman and postman at work, both of whom enjoyed last year's offering.
I said to all of them that the language could be Victorian and old-fashioned, but please to persevere with this favourite work of Dickens himself - it's a cracking story of the heights and depths of humanity, and anyone who can finish it without a good few tears must have skipped a lot, is all I can say! And a big thank you to World Book Night - it really does give you a huge warm glow to be lucky enough to give books away like this and see the look of delight on people's faces!
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