Farewell to Walkies

On the eve of Tuesday 8th July 2008, a host of booksellers and publishers (and the SYP of course) invaded the streets of London en masse, donned in fancy dress, to enjoy the last ever BTBS “Walkies”.

The Book Trade Benevolent Society’s annual charity walk has been the charity’s major fundraising event for several years and this year proved to be as popular as ever, with hundreds of people participating in the walk to help raise money for disadvantaged people in the book trade.

This year’s fancy dress theme for the SYP was Alice in Wonderland.  Alongside the Mad Hatter and his associates, many other colourful characters attended the walk from Supergirl and Bugs Bunny to Amy Winehouse and an alarming number of Alan Carrs.

The sponsored walk took these unlikely participants on a merry (and often tipsy) dance through various book-related checkpoints in central London. Stopping off for re-fuelling at a variety of venues such as Samuel French, Waterstones and Bloomsbury, revellers picked up refreshments and goodies before making their way to the party at Sugar Reef to indulge in more eating and drinking, and even a little dancing.

Another huge success for the BTBS, many people in the publishing world will be sad to say goodbye to “Walkies” but BTBS chief executive David Hicks has said he wants to seek an alternative way for fundraising in future years. Let’s hope it’s as enjoyable as this jolly jaunt round London has proven to be.