WRITER and broadcaster Alan Bennett has presented a Forest library with a £5,000 prize after it beat 20 other county entries.

Bream Library volunteer James Robertson stepped onto the stage at the Cheltenham Literature Festival to receive the first ever David Vaisey Prize, presented in honour of Mr Bennett’s college friend.

James, 17, who joined the library as a volunteer last year, said: “To win this award is massive. Everybody at the library is enormously proud of all the effort that every volunteer has put in.”

And History Boys playwright Mr Bennett made a plea for more funding for libraries, describing them as a vital community asset.

“Libraries, like hospitals, like public transport, should come out of the rates. They are, or should be, a community service,” he said.

“The best moments in reading are when you come across something – a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things – which you had thought special and particular to you.

“Now here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have not met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours.

“In the multiplication of such moments, libraries and librarians are indispensable and the David Vaisey Prize celebrates that.”

Bream Library, which is completely run by volunteers, was shortlisted alongside Longlevens, Brockworth and Tuffley and Matson libraries for its imaginative initiative to attract children to use its facilities.

It provides a Lego club, run by James and Craig Tait, where children build projects and gain inspiration from Lego books which they read with their parents, and other initiatives have included a summer reading challenge, a housebound service, a Dungeons and Dragons club and an evening reading club.

The award for Gloucestershire libraries was launched in honour of Tetbury-born Mr Vaisey CBE, who dedicated his life to libraries, becoming head of the Bodleian Library at Oxford University and Keeper of the Archives there.

Mr Vaisey and Mr Bennett, who have been friends for more than 50 years, first met at Exeter College, Oxford.

Making the award, Mr Bennett said: “One notion that we have lost in David’s and my lifetime is of the state as nurturer. For both of us, the state was a saviour delivering us out of poverty and putting us on the road to a better life.

“Libraries are for all ages – it is how my reading began and how my friend David’s did too. The David Vaisey Prize is well named celebrating as it does a life dedicated to libraries.”

The David Vaisey Prize encourages readers of all ages to borrow more books, read and discuss titles, as well as sparking community support and help from volunteers.

Bream Library spokeswoman Mairi McLellan said: “The library is now looking forward to using the money to make the library an even better place for the enjoyment of reading.”

See www.breamcommunitylibrary.co.uk and davidvaiseyprize.co.uk for more information.