WORLD BOOK DAY: View Shirley Hughes Artwork Today

7 March 2013

worldbookday2013 Visit the Bodleian today and view original drawings and manuscripts from the much-loved children�s author and illustrator Shirley Hughes.

In celebration of World Book Day, 7 March 2013, this one-day display features the well-known characters such as Alfie among other favourites. The items are for the first time on public display since Hughes deposited her original artwork with the Bodleian Library in September 2012.

Winner of many awards, Shirley Hughes has written more than seventy books and was awarded the OBE in 1999 for services to children�s literature. One of her books, Alfie's Shop, is among the eight £1 books exclusively published for this year's World Book Day celebrations.

The delightful unique collection will be on display in the Divinity School only today between 10am and 4pm. All are welcome.

Each year the Bodleian Library celebrates World Book Day by exhibiting its great treasures. Past displays include:

The Gutenberg Bible (2004);
Mary Shelley�s Frankenstein, the autograph manuscripts (2005);
Shakespeare�s �First Folio� (2006);
The original Wind in the Willows: the centenary of a children�s masterpiece (2007);
The Creation as told in the Torah, the Bible and the Qur�an (2008);
Uncommon Readers: St Margaret of Scotland to Queen Elizabeth I (2009);
There and Back Again: The Hobbit (2010);
John le Carré�s newly bequeathed archive (2011);
Jane Austen material (2012).

World Book Day is the biggest annual celebration of books and reading in the UK and Ireland. Celebrating sixteen years of encouraging the young and old to share their love of books and reading, World Book Day is a partnership of publishers, booksellers and interested parties who work together to promote books and reading for the personal enrichment and enjoyment of all. The main aim of World Book Day is to encourage children to explore the pleasures of books and reading by providing them with the opportunity to have a book of their own.