HOW difficult can it be to give a gift away to a complete stranger? “This will take about ten minutes,” I told Roscoe and his brothers as we drove to the cafe at Fountains Abbey, near Ripon, on our way into town.

“Oh mum, do we have to? All my mates are waiting for me,” said 18-year-old Charlie. “Why can’t Roscoe just leave it in town and then we can go there straight away?” said 16-yearold Patrick.

Roscoe had found a book on a bench on the pier at Whitby a few months ago. It was inside a clear plastic bag with a note saying: “Free Book. I’m a special book, travelling around the world and making new friends. Please take me home with you.”

Inside was a copy of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. There was also a sticker on the front of the book: “I’m not lost... I’m on a journey. Please don’t leave me here. You’ll wonder what may have been – maybe not now, but soon, and for the rest of your life.”

Known as Bookcrossing, it’s an inspired idea, serendipity in action.

People are encouraged to read the books they find and then release them, following their book’s journey on the Bookcrossing website and finding out about its other readers and what they thought of it.

Jane Eyre had travelled from Chicago via Romania before arriving in North Yorkshire.

Roscoe was very excited. “That book was just waiting there for you to pick up. You must be meant to read it,” I told him. He got as far as page two.

A Gothic, Victorian romance with a feminist twist, isn’t an obvious choice of book for a 12-year-old boy.

So I read it instead, and really enjoyed it. “Maybe it was meant for your mother,” I told him.

NOW it was time to release Jane back into the wild and Roscoe decided he wanted to do it at Fountains Abbey, the National Trust’s most visited site in the UK.

But he also wanted to surreptitiously observe the book being picked up, to get an idea of what home it was going to go to next.

So I put on my dark glasses and we got some ice-creams and drinks and sat on a table outside the cafe, from where we could see the bench on which we had deposited the book.

Bathed in sunshine and overlooking the lake, it was the perfect spot.

We couldn’t believe what happened next. The first woman to spot it eyed it with suspicion, then slid it away from her, up to the far end of the bench. The next couple to come along asked everyone sitting nearby if it was their package, read all the details on the front of the bag and walked off, leaving it behind.

Other people looked at it, read the information on the bag and promptly dropped it back onto the bench, as if they were frightened of it.

None of them realised, of course, that we were all sitting there watching their every move. “This is really entertaining. It’s the sort of thing I would watch it if was on TV,” said Patrick.

We decided we’d move the book onto a table beside us. Perhaps if a large group of people sat down, there would be more chance of someone taking up the offer.

Eventually, two families with Geordie accents came along. “Look at this,” one of the men said. “It’s a free book. You read it and then leave it somewhere for someone else.”

They all agreed it was a great idea.

One of the youngsters got really excited: “A free book! A free book!” he shouted to the others.

“Job done,” I was about to say. But they walked off, leaving Jane on the table. “We’ll just leave it for someone else to pick up,” said the man who had found it.

We had been there more than an hour-and-a-half and had to go. “We’ll come back later,” I told Roscoe. But the same thing happened when we returned.

This time we laid Jane on the map and information board, next to the ice-cream van in the car park overlooking the lake in the Deer Park next to the Abbey.

Lots of people picked the package up and looked at it, and then promptly put it down again. Even the icecream seller got out of his van to have a look, before turning his nose up at poor Jane.

After about another hour, we decided we had to go. Roscoe said he would just leave Jane there. “I think she’s just waiting for the right person to pick her up,” he said.

Later that night, I was dropping one of the older boys off in town.

“Could we call in at the Deer Park and just see if she’s gone?” said Roscoe.

We got there about 9pm. It was cold and dark. And there was Jane, still sitting there, looking forsaken and bereft.

“This is exactly what happened to her in the book,” I told him. “She ended up homeless and alone, wandering the moors. But someone took her in. I’m sure there’ll be a happy ending...”

A FRIEND’S daughter wasn’t looking forward to the Easter holidays, when her older sister and brother have to study hard for exams. “Easter is going to be so sad,” said eight-year-old Phoebe.

“Matthew has to work for his A levels and Sally has to work for her GCSEs.” She paused and sighed. “And then there’s poor Jesus on the cross...”