Author’s success reaches new heights

A LOCAL author’s work will be read aloud from the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square on Wednesday as part of sculptor Antony Gormley’s living monument.

Author Jan Needle’s book, “Wagstaffe the Wind-Up Boy” — now in a new reprint — is to be read as part of Gormley’s One and Other summer exhibition.

The empty fourth plinth is being used until October 14 by Gormley to represent the whole of humanity by involving 2,400 people from all over the UK who will stand on the plinth for an hour each, doing whatever they like.

On Wednesday, Manchester mother-of-two Julie McCarthy, as part of her stint as a living statue, will read from the book, a comedy set around Oldham and Rochdale.

Jan (66), from Uppermill, is pleased that Julie, who lives in Chorlton and works for the Arts Council, chose a comedy book for the plinth.

He said: “My only worry is that Julie might fall off the pedestal with laughing. It really is a very silly book.”

He added: “My feeling is that children deserve all kinds of books: adventures, comedies, and serious looks at life in Britain and the world today. As long as children want to read it, almost anything goes.”