I am a bookworm...

I am a bookworm and a book lover because I absolutely love reading. I collect or acquire books, and I can't pass by a second hand stall at a jumble sale or fete without buying "only one”.

So yesterday I was very happy to hear about how the many people who learn to read in adulthood are encouraged to do so by Quick Reads; short stories written by well known authors especially for adult learners. So it's not Janet and John, or Dick and Dora for them, but titles such as 'Kung Fu Trip' by Benjamin Zephaniah, 'Men at Work' by Mike Gayle and 'Strangers on the 16:02' by Priya Basil, just three of the new Quick Read titles released yesterday. I was invited to the launch party of all ten new titles as part of World Book Day on Tuesday and the event got off to a good start. There were exciting activities suggested too and I really like the idea of A Family Reading Breakfast. Take a look at the World Book Day website – http://www.worldbookday.com/ – for more intriguing and exciting ideas.

The WI will be involved in the Hay Festival in June this year and a number of members are currently writing their memoirs with the guidance of Queenbee Publishing. Within the WI, we have our own Lady Denman literary competition and this year, in no more than 500 words, members have to imagine, extol, and speculate on "The WI in 2025".

In addition to all of this, we are holding a Literary Lunch at Denman College on 8 April with Joanna Trollope who will talk about her writing and read extracts from her latest novel: Daughters-in-Law. When I realised her previous novel, 'Friday Nights', was set in the area around our office in New Kings Road we just had to invite her along to the WI – the friends in that book could well have joined the WI together.