Dennis's rare good deed helping children to read

Children are being urged to read for pleasure as part of a festival at the Southbank Centre - with the help of Dennis the Menace.

The Imagine children's festival aims to inspire youngsters to pick up a book and lose themselves in literature.

About 30 pupils from St Mary's in Battersea, the primary school at the heart of the Evening Standard's literacy campaign, spent a day there and saw a new show based on characters from the Beano comic.

The seven- and eight-year-olds were treated to tickets for the Trial of Dennis The Menace to help them see reading as fun. It is the first time Dennis and his Beano cohorts have been brought to the stage.

The children's festival, sponsored by booksellers the Book People, runs until this Sunday.