The story of World Book Day

Do you know the story behind World Book Day on 23 April?

You may have dressed up as your favourite book character in school but the idea came from a long-established Spanish celebration called The Day of Books and Roses.

Pere Vicens, a book publisher from Barcelona in Spain, is one of the creators of World Book Day which first took place in 1996. He tells Witness History's Gill Kearsley that "Books are essential for our civilisation."

(Picture: Gill Kearsley at Manchester Central Library)