National Literary Trust By Sam Pegg on
For years now, World Book Day has been a staple of many people’s childhoods. It’s been a day dedicated in the year to inspire new generations of people to get out there and read something new, something exciting, even something simple – all just for the pleasure of simply reading. Schools across the country gear up to encourage children to dress as their favourite book characters (I unabashedly dressed up in a killer Mad Hatter costume once, as well as being Mr Twit who was mistaken for Hagrid on multiple occasions), and it breathes life into the worlds that inhabit books and cements the fact that stories are much more than something we read. In fact, books are a cultural phenomenon, one of the oldest forms of entertainment, and in a world that gears towards a digital age, we can always rely on that one day of the year, World Book Day, to encourage us to put down our phones, gaming consoles, and TVs and get lost in th