The national programme is called Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and the Imagination Marlborough initiative is a partnership between two charities, the Dollywood Foundation UK and Hamilton Trust.

The Dollywood Foundation was started by Dolly Parton in memory of her father. She has said, “I remain totally convinced that if we could do one simple thing to inspire kids and adults to learn more, it would be to inspire them to read more.” Since starting her Imagination Library in 1995 more than 100 million free books have been sent out worldwide.

Hamilton Trust is an educational charity based in Oxford, whose main purpose is to support primary teachers nationally through providing teaching resources on its website, www.hamilton-trust.org.uk . The Trust is already helping Marlborough children and the Marlborough LitFest. It has a special interest in literacy and in the under Fives and was instrumental in starting another Oxford charity, Peeple, which has worked closely with the BBC on its CBeebies programme ‘The Baby Club’.