My Benches

Benches

 

Alex Rider

Author: Anthony Horowitz

The Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz follows the adventures of teenage spy Alex Rider, who is recruited by the British secret service after discovering his uncle's assassination. His missions take him around the world, fighting criminal organisations and assassins in a bid to keep t...
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Always try to be a little kinder than is necessary

Author: J.M. Barrie

Having jumped out of J.M. Barrie's 1902 novel for adults, The Little White Bird, Peter Pan became one of the best-loved characters in fiction. His mischievous adventures told through Barrie's irresistible narrative have captured the imagination of children and adults alike for generations....
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Around the World in Eighty Days

Author: Jules Verne

Around the World in Eighty Days is a classic adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne, published in 1873. In the story, Phileas Fogg of London and his newly employed French valet Passepartout attempt to circumnavigate the world in 80 days on a wager set by his fri...
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Brick Lane

Author: Monica Ali

Brick Lane, named after a street at the heart of London’s Bangladeshi community, follows the life of Nazneen, a Bangladeshi woman who moves to London at the age of 18, to marry an older man, Chanu. At first her English consists only of “sorry" and “thank you”. The novel explores her l...
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Bridget Jones's Diary

Author: Helen Fielding

When Helen Fielding first wrote Bridget Jones's Diary, charting the life of a 30-something singleton in London in the 1990s, she introduced readers to one of the most beloved characters in modern literature. The book was published in 40 countries, sold more than 15 million copies worldwide, a...
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Clarice Bean

Author: Lauren Child

All Clarice Bean wants is a bit of peace and quiet. But that can be hard to find in a house where your little brother is being utterly annoying, your big brother is in the dark tunnel of adolescence and your grandad is pouring soup on his cornflakes. Clarice introduces us to her life and family...
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Dickens in Liverpool

Author: Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens made an extraordinary contribution to our literary heritage. With titles such as Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian period. Pupils at Hillside High School in Bootle, Liverpool decided to let th...
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Dr Seuss

Author: Theodor Seuss Geisel

Theodor Seuss Geisel, best known as the beloved Dr Seuss, was an American writer and cartoonist. He wrote 46 children’s books, including The Cat in the Hat (1957). The Cat shows up at the house of Sally and her brother one rainy day when their mother is away. Left alone, they think they're ...
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Earnest

Author: Oscar Wilde

The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People by Oscar Wilde was first performed on 14 February 1895 at the St James's Theatre in London. It is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personas in order to escape burdensome social obligations. Wor...
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Elmer the Elephant

Author: David McKee

Elmer the Patchwork Elephant has been a nursery favourite since the series was first published, with over five million copies sold in 40 languages worldwide. David McKee's beloved story of Elmer is about celebrating differences and diversity and accepting one's true colours. Des...
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Fever Pitch

Author: Nick Hornby

Fever Pitch is Nick Hornby's award-winning football classic that has sold over a million copies in the UK alone. Published in 1992, Hornby's debut novel is an autobiography of his life as an Arsenal fan. For many people watching football is mere entertainment, to some it's more like a ri...
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From the Gruffalo to Scarecrows: The World of Axel Scheffler and Julia Donaldson

Author: Julia Donaldson. Illustrator: Axel Scheffler

Artist Axel Scheffler and writer Julia Donaldson first teamed up in 1993, and since then they have published 12 books, including The Gruffalo (1999). This stunning BookBench, created by Axel Scheffler, celebrates their most lovable characters. The Gruffalo , one of the world’s b...
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Frozen in Time

Author: Captain Scott

Captain Robert Falcon Scott (6 June 1868 – c. 29 March 1912) was a Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition, 1901–04, and the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition, 1910–13. The Captain Scott BookBench brings to life his diary of...
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Girl Engrossed

Author: Sue Townsend

Artist Andrea Joseph took inspiration from one of her favourite books growing up to create a BookBench that represents a love of reading. Andrea says: “Back in the day, like many other kid of the 1980s, I was obsessed with Adrian Mole. A while ago I reread the books and they were still as fun...
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Great Expectations

Author: Charles Dickens

Great Expectations is a coming-of-age novel, and it is a classic work of Victorian literature. It depicts the growth and personal development of an orphan named Pip. The novel was first published in serial form in Dickens' weekly periodical All the Year Round, from 1 December 1860...
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Hercule Poirot and the Greenshore Folly

Author: Agatha Christie

Listed as the best-selling novelist of all time, Agatha Christie is the only mystery author to have created two world-famous detectives: Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple.. The book chosen for this very special BookBench is Hercule Poirot and the Greenshore Folly. In 19...
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How to Train Your Dragon

Author: Cressida Cowell

Read the books that inspired the How to Train Your Dragon films! Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III was an awesome sword-fighter, a dragon-whisperer and the greatest Viking Hero who ever lived. But it wasn't always like that. In fact, in the beginning, Hiccup Ho...
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Jacqueline Wilson

Author: Jacqueline Wilson

Jacqueline Wilson is one of the nation’s favourite authors, and her books are loved and cherished by young readers in the UK and all over the world. She has sold millions of books and in the UK alone the total now stands at over 35 million. She is especially well known for her...
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James Bond stories

Author: Ian Fleming

The only one of our benches with a licence to kill, the James Bond BookBench is proudly sponsored by Ian Fleming Publications. The company keep the Bond name alive, ensuring the mystery and glamour ripples through to more generations with new stories for different ages.  ...
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Jeeves and Wooster Stories

Author: P.G. Wodehouse

The Jeeves and Wooster tales are the extraordinary work of author P.G. Wodehouse. The stories feature Wooster and his valet Jeeves, who frequently comes to his aid. Extricating Young Gussie, the first short story to feature Jeeves and Wooster, was published in 1915, nearly 100 years ago. Wode...
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Katie in London

Author: James Mayhew

Written and illustrated by James Mayhew, Katie's adventures in this book will capture your imagination as Katie and her brother Jack are shown the sights of London by a stone lion who comes alive and befriends them. The lion takes them on a wonderful tour of the city taking in s...
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Mary Poppins

Author: P.L. Travers

When their new nanny, Mary Poppins, arrives on a gust of the East Wind, greets their mother, and slides up the banister, Jane and Michael’s lives are turned magically upside down. Mary takes the children on the most extraordinary outings: to a fun fair inside a pavement picture; to visit Uncle And...
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Mrs Dalloway

Author: Virginia Woolf

Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf was first published in 1925 and details a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, a fictional high-society woman living in post-war England. Created from two short stories, Mrs Dalloway in Bond Street and the unfinished The Prime Minister, the n...
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Neverwhere

Author: Neil Gaiman

When we launched Books about Town, The Guardian ran a poll asking readers to vote for their favourite literary work to be immortalised as a BookBench. After weeks of close voting, Neil Gaiman’s  Neverwhere was the clear winner. The bench has been brought to life by illust...
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Nineteen Eighty-Four

Author: George Orwell

The famous dystopian novel from George Orwell is a must-see on the BookBenches trail. One of the most influential books in our time, Orwell made chilling prophecies of a future come and gone. The novel is so well known that many made-up expressions from the book regularly appear in our daily communi...
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Noughts and Crosses

Author: Malorie Blackman

The Noughts and Crosses series is set in a fictional, racist dystopia. Sephy is a Cross – a member of the dark-skinned ruling class. Callum is a nought – a ‘colourless’ member of the underclass who were once slaves to the Crosses. The two have been friends since early childhood. ...
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On the Origin of Species

Author: Charles Darwin

On the Origin of Species, published on 24 November 1859, is a work of scientific literature by Charles Darwin and considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology. Darwin's book introduced the scientific theory that populations evolve over the course of generations through a proce...
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Peter Pan

Author: J.M. Barrie

The magical Peter Pan comes to the night nursery of the Darling children, Wendy, John and Michael. He teaches them to fly, then takes them through the sky to Neverland, where they find wolves, mermaids and pirates. The leader of the pirates is the sinister Captain Hook. His hand was bitten off ...
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Please Look After This Bear. Thank You.

Author: Michael Bond

Do you know the story of London’s most iconic bear?Although Paddington now lives in London, England, he originally came from Darkest Peru where he was brought up by his Aunt Lucy. When Aunt Lucy went to live in the Home for Retired Bears in Lima, she decided to send him to live...
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Pride and Prejudice

Author: Jane Austen

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, first published in 1813, follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet. She is the second of five sisters, whose mother frets about them finding suitable husbands. When Mr Bingley arrives in the neighbourhood with Mr Darcy, a story of love and heartbreak ens...
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Rest Your Stalks

Author: John Wyndham

Science fiction is set to be well represented on the Books about Town trail with the inclusion of the post-apocalyptic novel, The Day of the Triffids. The story of how a new, aggressive species of plant take over after a meteor shower that rendered most of the world blind is a piece of classi...
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Samuel Johnson's Wild World

Author: Dr Samuel Johnson

Written by Samuel Johnson and published in ...
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Samuel Pepys' Diary

Author: Samuel Pepys

Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man. The detailed private diary Pepys kept from 1660 until 1669 was first published in the 19th century, and is one of th...
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Shakespeare's London

Author: Shakespeare

How could we celebrate London's literary heritage without a Shakespeare bench? No matter what your favourite play is, this bench will draw you into Shakespeare's amazing world, from the magic of A Midsummer Night's Dream and the mayhem of Love's Labour's Lost, to the heart-wrenc...
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Sherlock Holmes stories

Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

One of the most revered and respected characters in literary history, we could not contemplate Books about Town without the inclusion of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's maverick investigator.  "I hear Sherlock everywhere" said Mycroft Holmes in The...
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Sit here at your own risk

Author: Stephen Hawking

A Brief History of Time, published in 1988, was a landmark volume in science writing and received worldwide acclaim and popularity. The original edition was on the cutting edge of what was then known about the origins and nature of the universe. But the ensuing years have seen extraordin...
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The Canterbury Tales

Author: Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales is a collection of over 20 stories written at the end of the 14th century, during the time of the Hundred Years' War. The tales are presented as part of a storytelling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey from Southwark to the shrine of...
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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Author: Douglas Adams

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a comedy science fiction series created by Douglas Adams. Originally a radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1978, it was adapted to other formats and became an international multi-media phenomenon. The first novel in the series features Arthur ...
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The Jungle Book

Author: Rudyard Kipling

Set in magical, mysterious India, these tales of people and animals living together have appealed to children and adults alike since their first appearance more than a century ago. Most focus on Mowgli, a boy raised by wolves. As Baloo the sleepy brown bear, Bagheera the cunning black panther, ...
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The Laura Marlin Mysteries

Author: Lauren St John

When orphaned Laura Marlin moves from a children's home to live with her uncle in Cornwall, she longs for a life of excitement just like the characters in her favourite detective novels.A real-life adventure is on hand as she is deposited at her uncle's spooky house . ...
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The Librarian

Author: Terry Pratchett

With over 80 million Discworld books in 37 languages, we hope that fans are impressed by our BookBench depicting the Librarian, a character who first appears in the debut novel, The Colour of Magic. The series is named after a flat disc balanced on the backs of four elephants which, in...
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The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Author: C.S. Lewis

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is C.S. Lewis’ most famous and widely read novel. It tells the story of four children who are evacuated from London to a big house in the English countryside during World War II. The youngest of the siblings, Lucy, finds a magical world called ...
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The Railway Children

Author: E. Nesbit

The Railway Children, published in 1905, is a classic children’s book which continues to captivate young readers over 100 years later. When Father goes away with two strangers one evening, the lives of Roberta, Peter and Phyllis are shattered. With their mother they move from their com...
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The Time Machine

Author: H.G. Wells

A classic in the science fiction genre, H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine has inspired many other works of fiction, including books, films, television adaptations and comic books. The Time Traveller also appears in many popular television shows such as Doctor Who and Warehouse 13...
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The Wind in the Willows

Author: Kenneth Grahame

The beloved children’s classic The Wind in the Willows has captivated audiences since the book was first published in 1908. Now it’s time to relive the adventures of Toad, Ratty, Badger and Mole in the idyllic English countryside. Take your place on this beautiful bench and dream yourself...
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The World's Biggest Flipbook

Author: Jeremy Banx

Jeremy Banks or “Banx” was born in London in 1959. He has been a professional freelance cartoonist since 1980, and since 1989 has been pocket cartoonist for the Financial Times. In 2008 and 2012 was voted Pocket Cartoonist of the Year by the Cartoon Art Trust. Banx’ work has appear...
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Through the Looking Glass

Author: Lewis Carroll

Everyone knows the story of how Alice fell down a rabbit hole and discovered a strange world of wonder and adventure, where she encountered mad tea parties, cats that disappeared at will and the ill-tempered Queen of Hearts. The British classic written by Lewis Carroll nearly 150 years ago...
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Usborne's That's not my... Bench

Author: Fiona Watt

That’s not my meerkat… is part of the bestselling That's not my... series, which also includes That’s not my piglet… and That’s not my panda…. Meerkats have become one of the most popular furry animals among young children and this book introduces a mob o...
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War Horse

Author: Michael Morpurgo

War Horse is the children’s novel by Michael Morpurgo. The story recounts the experiences of Joey, a horse purchased by the Army for service in France during World War I and the attempts of young Albert, his previous owner, to bring him ...
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We're Going on a Bear Hunt

Author: Michael Rosen. Illustrator: Helen Oxenbury

This worthy winner of the 1989 Nestle Smarties Book Prize and 2011 Mumsnet Best Award is a timeless classic that is enjoyed by children of all ages, as well as by the adults who are continually asked to read it again and again! It follows a famil...
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Wisden Cricketers' Almanack

Author:

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (also known as Wisden or colloquially "the Bible of Cricket") is a cricket reference book published annually. It is considered the world's most famous sports reference book. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a revi...
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