I was really thrilled to discover that The Big Read had organised bookbenches in the Birmingham area. I loved the original Books About Town project in 2014 which was a collaboration between Wild in Art and the National Literacy Trust. So any development on this idea I am all in favour of. If I’d known there were over 150 benches in the area I would have taken the time to follow one of the trails. But I was overjoyed to see some benches illustrated by local schools in Coventry and Solihull libraries.

Coventry Central Library is off the shopping district but we hadn’t seen any signs for the Library on the way in which I always feel is a bad omen. It means that it hasn’t occurred to the council that people might want to know where the library is!

You enter on the ground floor where there are public loos and a lift or stairs. Once up to the first floor we were pleasantly surprised. The décor was welcoming and it felt quite modern. Largely an open area with a mezzanine there was a giant chess set in the middle which my family immediately started playing. I don’t know if this is a permanent feature or if it is just there for the school summer holidays or maybe different features go in this area but we loved it.