WHILE books are something you would expect to find in a library, a festive display of former novels has caught the imagination of the public.

Julia Westgate, a library assistant at Hexham Library, created a Christmas tree from 100 old books to make up for the lack of its traditional tree.

Following the £500,000 refurbishment of the library, situated in the town’s Queen’s Hall, earlier this year, workers at the library found they had a lack of sockets to plug Christmas tree lights into.

Instead of having no tree, Julia improvised and stacked up the books, known as ‘grubby stock’ which had past their shelf by date and weren’t suitable to be loaned out any more. It only took Julia a couple of hours to complete.

Julia said: “It has been really well received by people coming in and they have been saying how nice it is at the entrance of the library.

“They have complimented us by saying it is a really different idea, and the positive feedback has been so pleasing to hear.”

The books have had their covers stripped off to ensure the tree is 100 per cent recyclable.

In addition to the books, the creation features natural tree branches and baubles donated to the library.