Philip Pullman has pleaded with ministers to protect school libraries amid fears of a reading crisis among children.
The author of the His Dark Materials trilogy suggested school libraries should have 'legal protection' as many are being turned into computer-focused 'information centres'.
He added: 'The school library is absolutely essential.
'It is too easy to think that books and reading for pleasure are not essential, whereas nothing is more certain to improve children's ability – and desire – to read richly and well.
'It's also been too easy for heads to downgrade the school library into an "information centre", with the focus on technology rather than books.'
Pullman told The Observer he had called on Michael Gove when he was education secretary to act.
'He thanked me courteously and took no notice whatsoever,' he claimed.
He spoke out after War Horse writer Sir Michael Morpurgo wrote to Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer to demand funding for books.
Sir Michael cited a survey that found 42 per cent of children under seven miss out on a bedtime story.
