Children and teachers across the UK today celebrated literature as they donned costumes to mark World Book Day.

Characters from fictional favourites including Roald Dahl’s Matilda and Shakespeare’s Macbeth could be seen alongside Disney princesses and Marvel action heroes as schools marked the annual tradition, which was first celebrated in the UK in 1995.

Lilly Cant, aged seven from Torquay, dressed as infamous villain Miss Trunchbull from Matilda.

The pose🤣World Book Day 2020!!!!#matilda#worldbookday2020

Posted by Laura Jordan on Thursday, March 5, 2020

Her mother, Laura Jordan, told the PA news agency: “Matilda is her favourite book and one of her favourite films.

“She wanted to be something completely different as Matilda was too easy.”

Morgan from Ashford, Kent, dressed as the Evil Queen from Snow White, with detailed make-up applied by her mother Layna Taylor.

An inventive costume came in the form of “record for the most spoons balanced on the face” in the Guinness World Records.

The creative boy’s mother, Emma, said: “Fin’s favourite book is the Guinness World Records so I got him to choose one we could recreate at home. He chose spoon-balancing man.”

(Christine Gentry)

Two children dressed up as Little My from the Moomin series by Tove Jansson, and Shakespeare’s famous Lady Macbeth.

One school decided to do away with dressing as characters, instead encouraging children to dress as words.

Louise Willows, from Crouch End, took to Twitter to explain that her nine-year-old was dressing as “sombre”.