We are delighted to report that we have been able to make some donations recently to various charities from Book Festival events.

On 14th June we enjoyed Afternoon Tea with Kate Morton at Woodborough Hall with 100 Lowdham Book Festival-goers, and we linked with the Marie Curie Blooming Great Tea Party project. Proceeds from the event allowed us to donate £58 to this excellent charity.

Then at our Reading Group Day on Saturday 18th June we featured the work done by BookAid International and asked for donations from the audience for their Meet, Talk, Give project. A contribution of only £2 will send a new book to a school library, public library, refugee camp, prison or rural community in sub-Saharan Africa and we raised £80 so it is a lovely thought that our donation will provide 40 books.

Our Festival cook, Jackie Skinner, did her now traditional demonstration at the Festival on Wednesday 23rd June, and showed us a lovely variety of salads, all taken from the Festival Cookbook. Proceeds from the book go to two different charities and so we held a raffle at Jackie’s event and were able to donate £15 each to Diabetes UK and also to British Heart Foundation.

Many thanks to all our customers who have donated to all these very worthy causes.

Chosen Charity - we have chosen to support Get Into Reading as our Charity of the Year. Get Into Reading is the key project of The Reader Organisation, doing amazing community work. Get Into Reading groups are led by trained project workers and volunteers, meeting each week to read books and poems together in locations such as care homes, libraries, prisons, mental health drop-in centres, community centres, schools, hostels, refugee centres and workplaces.
See their website for more information – thereader.org.uk – and keep an eye on our site for details of how we are supporting their great work in the coming months.