The Book Fairies
The Book Fairies launched in March 2017 with the goal to share free books worldwide. They currently have almost 9,000 people sharing books in over 100 countries.
Exeter City of Literature became honorary book fairies in June 2024 to share the works of local authors involved in The Book Market.
Watch this space for future collaborations we’ll be hosting with The Book Fairies.
About The Book Fairies
The idea of The Book Fairies is simple. There are people who like to read, and to share the books they’ve read. And guess what – everyone loves a nice surprise!
These two things come together with The Book Fairies – giving people a chance to pop a sticker and some ribbon on a book, make it a little surprise gift for someone, and leave it somewhere to be discovered!
The Book Fairies can be anywhere, and could be anyone you know. The Book Fairies are not restricted by countries, transport or anything else.
May - June 2026
To celebrate the authors involved in The Author Tent at The Book Market on Sunday 7th June 2026 we did another huge Book Fairies campaign.
With the help of 9 volunteers, we were able to hide 48 books across Devon for lucky readers to come across!
The Exeter City of Literature team worked with Ashley Hickson-Lovence, Ayanna Lloyd Banwo, Erica Hesketh, Fiona Benson, and Fiona Williams.
Thank you to the writers and their publishers for donating copies of their books to make this exciting programme possible.
October 2025
At our annual stakeholder event at RAMM we set up a ‘Build your own Book Fairies’ station for attendees to wrap up books with local connections and hide them in their own communities across the county.
June 2025
In the lead up to The Book Market on Sunday 8th June, we hid copies of local poet, musician and University of Exeter lecturer Arun Sood’s New Skin for the Old Ceremony around Devon to help spread the word of this one day celebration of the county’s readers, writers, and storytellers!
February 2025
In February 2025, we hid 66 books across Exeter that were pulled from the City Reads shortlist - a selection of 6 books that were vying for the title of Exeter’s favourite book.
We worked across many of Exeter’s low-literacy rate wards, sprinkling bookish magic across every corner of Exeter in parks, Free Little Libraries, and hiding places perfect for a book!
Amongst the hidden books were: The Lord of the Rings and The Fellowship of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (Which was voted Exeter’s favourite book last year!), Heartstopper Volume 1 by Alice Oseman, and The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers.
June 2024
To celebrate The Book Market’s first ever Author Tent in June 2024, we collaborated with Book Fairies to disperse book across Devon. The Exeter City of Literature team worked with Fiona Williams, Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson, Sarah Pearse, and Lucy Holland, and their publishers for donations.
30 books were then lovingly wrapped and placed across Devon & Exeter by the Exeter City of Literature team, with an invitation to see the writer of the books the lucky recipients had just found at The Book Market on Sunday 9th June.
Following this collaboration we were able to meet with head Book Fairy Cordelia at The Book Market and are now looking to do more work together in the future!
Official Book Fairies
Looking to find out more about the work of Book Fairies? Here are some accounts we recommend following to see all their volunteers get up to across Devon and the UK.