All Aboard for Our Read!

World Book Day, Thursday 3rd March, will soon be upon us – and that means it’s Our Read time!

As you know, we’ve got 50,000 copies of a brand new book, The Unforgotten Coat, written especially for Our Read by Frank Cottrell Boyce to be given away.

The Unforgotten Coat is about a young girl from Bootle, who begins to see things differently after she befriends two new Mongolian boys who turn up suddenly at her school and tell her of their travels.

To celebrate the start of the world’s largest shared-reading project, we’re  taking 25 lucky Liverpool youngsters to London onboard a Virgin Train (first class, no less!), accompanied by Frank who will be reading the story aloud to them for the very first time. The journey will culminate in a trip to the British Library for some souvenir-buying.

Trains, and journeys, are very important themes in the story of The Unforgotten Coat – and in its creation. Last year, after being asked by Jane to write a new story for our giveaway, Frank penned the first draft on the very same Virgin train route to London that the project will be launching from on Thursday. Frank says:

“I’m not sure what it is about trains – maybe it’s that sense that you’re going somewhere, or maybe it’s that your time is limited, or maybe it’s that magical thing of the world rushing past your window while you are sitting still which is a bit like dreaming. Whatever it is, I always have my best ideas on trains.”

Visit the Our Read page for more information.