Books about Town launched to the public today with benches shaped like open books popping up all over the capital for Londoners, families and visitors to find and enjoy.

The BookBenches feature stories linked to London and are based on a range of iconic books from treasured children's stories such as The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Peter Pan to classic adult titles including 1984 and The Day of the Triffids.

The new Books about Town website also launched today with a range of exciting features, including family events, activities and quizzes, downloadable trail maps, artist profiles and information on each BookBench.

Samuel Pepys Diary Book Bench

Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man. The detailed private diary Pepys kept from 1660 until 1669 was first published in the 19th century, and is one of the most important primary sources for the English Restoration period. It provides a combination of personal revelation and eyewitness accounts of great events such as the Great Plague, the Second Anglo-Dutch War and the Great Fire of London.

Paddington Bear Book Bench

Do you know the story of London's most iconic bear?

Although Paddington now lives in London, England, he originally came from Darkest Peru where he was brought up by his Aunt Lucy. When Aunt Lucy went to live in the Home for Retired Bears in Lima, she decided to send him to live in England. Eventually, Paddington arrived at Paddington Station in London where he was found by Mr and Mrs Brown. He was sitting on a small suitcase with a label round his neck with the words "Please Look After This Bear. Thank You." Unable to resist such a simple request, Mr and Mrs Brown took Paddington home to live with them and their two children, Jonathan and Judy and their housekeeper, Mrs Bird. The stories that followed about Paddington Bear and his adventures have delighted children for decades.

Steven Hawking Hawking Book Bench

A Brief History of Time, published in 1988, was a landmark volume in science writing and received worldwide acclaim and popularity. The original edition was on the cutting edge of what was then known about the origins and nature of the universe. But the ensuing years have seen extraordinary advances in the technology of observing both the micro- and the macrocosmic world - observations that have confirmed many of Hawking's theoretical predictions.

For more information, see:www.booksabouttown.org.uk

To view the list of benches, see:http://www.booksabouttown.org.uk/?action=ListBenches