Books about Town

At The Great British Book Shop we are really proud to be sponsors for The National Literacy Trust and their Books About Town campaign. We have sponsored the bench depicting The Librarian - a character from Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld series who is transformed into an orangutan. This amazing bench was designed and painted by the fab Paul Kidby. We have some exciting plans for the bench during the summer and will be sharing all the news here and on our Facebook and Twitter pages.

Having spent the summer being displayed on four trails across London it is now time for the bookbenches to find their new homes. All of the benches will be auctioned at an exclusive event at the Southbank Centre on the 7th October 2014 to raise funds for The National Literacy Trust's vital work to raise literacy levels in the UK. Why not go along, dig deep and give a bench a home!



Meet the Discworld illustrator! 11am - 3pm Saturday 23rd August 2014

Come and meet Paul Kidby, the illustrator of choice for Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series and the designer and painter of ‘The Librarian BookBench’. We are excited to announce that Paul Kidby has kindly agreed to visit the Librarian BookBench for a signing event on Saturday 23th August 2014, between 11am and 3pm. Join us at the bench - which is located on the Thames Riverbank overlooking HMS Belfast (view map) - for an opportunity to receive an exclusive print of the bench artwork, only available on the day. The Great British Book Shop team will be giving away 100 FREE copies at 11.30am and a further 100 at 1.30pm. Paul will also, time permitting, sign copies of books brought to the event Books About Town is celebrating London's literary heritage and reading for pleasure by placing 50 book-shaped bench sculptures across the capital this summer. At the end of the summer all the benches will be auctioned at an exclusive event at the Southbank Centre to raise funds for The National Literacy Trust's vital work to raise literacy levels in the UK. The benches are placed on four trails across London: Bloomsbury; Greenwich; City and Riverside, and The Librarian bench is on the Riverside trail alongside Paddington Bear, Great Expectations and How to Train Your Dragon, to name but a few. This is a great incentive to explore London, walk the trails and take part in the many events and activities that will be happening around the benches across the summer. Preserving the 'real' orangutans As part of our activities around the Librarian bench, we are really pleased to be supporting the Orangutan Foundation. Until the 15th September 2014, by using the checkout code Discworld5, customers will activate a donation of 5% of the sale price of their order from The Great British Book Shop to the Orangutan Foundation, and receive 5% off the price of their order too. The code may be used as many times as customers wish, for the duration of the offer.

The Oranguatan Foundation is supported by Sir Terry Pratchett and works to conserve the threatened orangutan and its globally important habitat , the tropical forests of Borneo and Sumatra.

Below is just a selection of the Discworld titles by Sir Terry Pratchett, to view the full list of titles available, click here.