'Book fairy' Emma Watson helps distribute titles for International Women's Day

Actress Emma Watson has helped launch a project which saw 1,000 books distributed all over the world for International Women’s Day. She hid the copies at various places including historical feminist sites in New York City, complete with a personal, handwritten note.

The Harry Potter star has been helping the Books on the Underground project which was founded in 2012 by London commuter Hollie Fraser and has now spread to 26 countries. Watson is the not-for-profit project’s “newest book fairy” according to the project’s website and yesterday she tweeted: “Today I'm a red-striking ninja book-fairy out to spread some wise women's words.” She captured the moment she dropped off books at Eleanor Roosevelt’s monument as posting videos of her placing books on the Gertrude Stein statue and visiting the Joan of Arc memorial in New York City to distribute copies.

The books are from Watson’s book club, Our Shared Self, which she launched in January last year and discusses a different feminist text every two months. It is hosted on the Amazon-owned site Goodreads.

The Brown graduate shared one of book club favourites  - Maya Angelou’s Mom & Me & Mom - on the London Underground for commuters in November.

The project tweeted from its Twitter handle, @the_bookfairies: “Thank you @EmmaWatson for going to such a great effort on #IWD to hide feminist books and support our worldwide launch! #IWDoursharedshelf”

The Books on the Underground website describes how the scheme aims to encourage more people to read. It says: “Books on the Underground’s aim is to get more people in London reading. On an average week, Cordelia [director of Books on the Underground and Chief Book Fairy] and her Book Fairies will put 150 new books around the underground, on seats, benches, station signs, and around ticket areas, accompanied by social media updates. We sometimes even give clues as to where the books will be dropped.”

Last December the group hosted its first Independent Authors Day to distribute titles by self-published authors.