During the UNESCO General Conference held in Paris in 1995, delegates discussed the idea of having an annual celebration of books and authors. They wished to promote reading worldwide and teach children about the wonders of reading for pleasure.
The day chosen for this was April 23, in tribute to several famous authors who had their birth or death on this date, such as Miguel de Cervantes, William Shakespeare, and Vladimir Nabokov, among others.
Join journalist and author Sophy Roberts, who will be talking about her second book, A Training School for Elephants, which grapples with our history of animal and human exploitation and reveals an extraordinary – and enduring – tale of colonial greed, ineptitude, hypocrisy and folly.