Dolly Parton to give books to children in Southwark

With a pleasing voice, a magnetic stage presence (if you’re not happy while watching Dolly perform, please check your pulse – you may be dead), and unquestioned authenticity, Parton has been at the top of the country charts countless times and has won ever award given in country music.

She contributed a classic song and a deft, warm-hearted comic performance to “9 to 5”. Or, how she has stood with the GLBT community, even when it wasn’t a popular thing to do, and considering her music base in country possibly even harmful to her career. Born into a “dirt poor” family with 11 siblings and raised near the Great Smoky Mountains, she never let fame shift or alter her down-home persona. In 2016, she’ll celebrate Dollywood’s 30th anniversary. Or, her many ways of “giving back” for her success, like that lovely project, the Imagination Library that she started in 1995, which sends a book a month to children in Eastern Tennessee from birth to kindergarten. It tells the story of a coat sewed together out of rags by her mother – a coat which now hangs in the Chasing Rainbows Museum at her theme park Dollywood. “You know, like love and kindness and understanding”. So far it has given away 70 million books to children around the world.

Mrs Parton said she hoped the scheme would one day be in place across the capital.

Visit Dolly’s Imagination Library to find out more information.