World Book Day today - A celebration of books and reading.

World Book Day is a worldwide celebration of books and reading, and is marked in over 100 countries around the globe.

Today the UK and Ireland will mark World Book Day through a series of activities all over the country.

Dame Lynne Brindley, CEO of the British Library shares her favourite book: “As a child, Alice in Wonderland was always a favourite book. It is a real privilege to now be able to view the various depictions of Alice by artists from John Tenniel to Salvador Dali on public display in the British Library’s Treasures Gallery. Having had cats at home as child, my favourite character was undoubtedly the Cheshire Cat – I think I lived in hope that mine would also strike up a conversation!”

Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson DBE, 11-time Paralympic Gold medallist: “Favourite book – at the moment Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith. It has it all the class of Austen, a happy ending but zombies too. Completely irreverent.”

Bounce by Matthew Syed has got the vote of Lord Herman Ouseley, Chair of Kick It Out, football's equality and inclusion campaign. "Like everything else in life, Bounce is convincing about the part luck plas in being successful in sport," he said. "You may be hugely talented, but success comes only with hard work, knowing the right people and being in the right place at the right time to get the sort of bounce that really makes a difference."

Last but not least, Baroness Sue Campbell, Chair of UK Sport and Youth Sport Trust picks More Than Just A Game by Chuck Korr and Marvin Close, “because it shows the power of sport in inspiring people and changing lives,” and the man responsible for administering the Public Lending Right, Registrar Jim Parker tells us “My favourite childhood book was Gavin Maxwell's Ring of Bright Water - the author's account of how he reared a wild otter and estblished an otter sanctuary in the western isles of Scotland. Beautifully and evocatively written at a time in the late fifties and early sixties when wildlife and environmental issues were beginning to come to public attention.”

http://www.worldbookday.com/