CHILDREN began a love of books at the opening of a new library at the Wright Watson Enterprise Centre in Idle, Bradford.

The Lord Mayor of Bradford, Councillor Joanne Dodds, attended the special day at the purpose-built community centre, which was created with help from the European Social Regional Development Fund.

The theme of the event was "Storytelling, past present and future" and included the centre's Mike Whitehouse, dressed as an assistant to Wright Watson, the famous local author and teacher at Thorpe School in 1870.

He reading from the school’s log dated March 3, 1883 - which included how one teacher had failed to prepare her lessons properly and fled to another job before she could be disciplined.

Some 60 children at Parkland and Thorpe Primary Schools attended and were read the storybook "Willy the Wizard" by the Lord Mayor, who then donated it to the library.

Councillor Jeanette Sunderland chaired Inspired Neighbourhoods, which brought the Wright Watson centre and its volunteer-run library into being.

"It was a spectacular day and it was so lovely to see all the children sitting down with a book each and really enjoying reading," said Cllr Sunderland (Lib Dem, Idle and Thackley).

"They've all gone home with library membership forms and we really look forward to welcoming them and their families.

"In the morning we had an authoress from Malaysia skyping to speak to the children.

"For most it was the first time they'd ever had a chance to question a person who's written a book and they were asking all about its ideas and illustrations.

"That really was an example of story telling of the future, being able to sit and talk to an author using the latest technology."

The National Literacy Trust Hub in Bradford has provided 100 books and set up the skype session with one of the initiative’s international supporters, Tutu Dutta in Malaysia reading from her book, Phoenix Song and talked about the importance of storytelling to celebrate different cultures.

Cllr Sunderland said: "Wright Watson's assistant told them all about life at the local school 133 years ago when it was so cold, children had to huddle in one classroom together and all about the things that they did such as needlework and woodwork.

"When the Methodist church closed on this site that was the end of chapter and we set off on another one to produce a beautiful new library and also somewhere that is home to seven new businesses.

"We are all so grateful to people who had faith and backed the project including the European Social Regional Development Fund, the Heritage Lottery Fund, community funding group WREN and Bradford Council.

"And there couldn't be a better day to celebrate that story than on World Book Day."