Our Talking About My Generation campaign reporters will be hosting a Living Library at Manchester Central Library on Saturday, October 26.

The event will take place 1-4pm at in the main cafe area and will be the first ‘Living Library’ to only host people aged 50 and over, all from different walks of life, who will share their personal stories that challenge age-related prejudice and stereotypes.

Visitors can browse the bookcase of sixteen available titles and choose the book they want to read: the only difference is that in the Living Library, books are people, and reading consists of a conversation. The Library will be hosted in the café area where readers will be invited to pull up a pew and meet their ‘book’ in real life.

Tony Openshaw, one of the community reporters for the campaign is leading the Living Library event.

He said: “I have been involved in a Living Library event before, it is a great way to meet and talk to new people and to view life from the perspectives of people different from yourself – but I have never been involved in one focussed on challenging ageing stereotypes.

“We want to challenge visitors to change their views of older people by chatting to our 16 human books – and hopefully their stories will show that there is more than one way to grow old!”

The campaign is part of an Ambition for Ageing project, with funding from the National Lottery Community Fund, and is being co-delivered with the support of PR social enterprise Yellow Jigsaw and Age UK partners from Wigan, Salford, Tameside, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Bolton and Manchester.

For more information on the campaign follow us on Twitter @MyGenerationGM or see our Facebook page Talking About My Generation.