A PUB in Horrabridge has found an innovative way to attract the punters — by filling it with books and offering a library service!

Owner of the London Inn, Heidi, whose surname is, aptly, Lenderyou, and partner of ten years Mike Huda, have around 500 books which customers can read in the pub for nothing, buy for 50p or swap for 20p — and all the money raised is helping the local primary school.

Now every available space in the pub is being shelved and loaded with titles ranging from Mills and Boon novels to a wide range of cookery and gardening books.

Mike Huda, who ran pubs in London with Heidi before they took over the London Inn in November 2009, said the couple were both book lovers but to extend their passion to customers was just one of the ideas they had to engage with the community.

'We wanted to attract people who did not necessarily go into a pub and felt intimated by doing so,' he said. 'The books were a way to get people in so they had an opportunity to meet us and see the interior of the pub.

'We started with one bookshelf from Argos, then a second one and now wherever we have a gap another shelf goes up. We spread the books around the pub and it actually makes the place look really homely.'

Mike and Heidi, who sponsor local activities, fundraise for charities and have even taken over a shop in the village to help the community prosper, are considering introducing a children's corner with an old school desk and children's books for when families visit.

Curiously Mike was wondering why the quiz night teams had all improved but then it dawned on him: 'They are sneaking reference books into the toilets, the little monkeys,' he said.