What do Shakespeare's birthday and St George's Day have in common? They both fall on April 23rd, which has been designated World Book Day by UNESCO. Inspired by the Spanish tradition of giving a book and a rose to loved ones on St George's Day, the day is intended to remind children and adults of the pleasures of reading.
Publishers, booksellers, schools, the BBC and a host of other organisations are joining together to make this one of the biggest-ever celebrations: every school child in Ireland and the UK has received a special £1 voucher which can be used to purchase any book. A number of Irish bookshops have special 20 per cent reductions - or you could consider buying The Children's Book of Books. Published specially for the day, it costs £1 and contains extracts from favourite children's books chosen by a number of celebrities - so here's your chance to see which books Liam Gallagher, Ruth Rendell, Tony Blair and Jarvis Cocker enjoyed reading as children.
Bookshops throughout Ireland have put together special programmes to mark World Book Day. These include reading and drawing at 2 pm in Fred Hanna's, Dublin, with Don Conroy. Hanna's also has readings by children's authors Mary Shiels (McVickers Zoo) at 2.30 pm on April 24th; Anne-Marie Heron (Ribbit Ribbit) 3 pm on April 27th; Aubrey Flegg (Katie's War) 3 pm on April 30th and Gerard Whelan (Guns of Easter) at 11 am on April 31st. Hughes & Hughes in Lisburn will be holding workshops entitled Journey of a Book. Suitable for seven- to eleven-year olds, they explain how books are published and will be held twice daily during the week of World Book Day. O'Mahoney's in Limerick will be holding colouring competitions and giving out prizes throughout the day, and Philips Bookshop in Mallow is running a poetry reading in conjunction with local schools on the day.
The BBC has scheduled a range of programmes beginning today with World Book Day Shorts. This series of short films features celebrities discussing their favourite books, and includes Maureen Lipmann on the Mill on the Floss and Alan Davies on A Prayer for Owen Meaney. The Learning Curve on Radio 4FM (April 21st) concentrates on reading and writing, with Jackie Collins sharing "The Best Lesson She Was Ever Taught"; the programme also looks at how libraries are reinventing themselves for the new millennium. Young children are introduced to the joy of books with a little help from the Teletubbies on BBC2 starting on Monday, April 20th, and running throughout the week.
Events on World Book Day itself include The Written Word (BBC2), a tour of the literary globe through the novels of this century's most famous authors. It includes Evelyn Waugh's portrait of England in the 1930s, Umberto Eco's medieval Italy, Solzhenitsyn's bleak Russian Gulag and Garcia Marquez's Latin America.
RTE will also carry World Book Day items on The Den (Network 2), April 23rd; The Arts Show (Radio 1), April 23rd and The Great Giveaway Show (2FM), April 18th, 19th, 25th and 26th. Other coverage is planned but details are not yet available.
Information on other events in Ireland and the UK is available through the Internet at www.publishers.org.uk. A World Book Day Website is accessible through the BBC's Education website at BO]www.bbc.co.uk/education and is definitely worth checking out. It has an animated William Shakespeare who talks users through an illustrated history of the written word from prehistoric cave paintings to the first photocopiers and the Internet itself. The site also includes up-to-the-minute information on Book Day programmes and events.
Yvonne Drysdale is an Irish Times staff member