A capital-wide reading scheme asking all Londoners to read the same novel this month held its closing night in Swiss Cottage.

Louisa Young, the author who wrote the Cityread scheme’s chosen novel My Dear, I Wanted To Tell You, gave a talk about her book before debating its themes in a panel discussion on Tuesday at Swiss Cottage Library, in Avenue Road.

The novel, set during the First World War, was chosen to mark the centenary of the Great War.

Retired surgeon Brian Morgan, who runs the Archive for the British Association of Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons, joined Ben Copsey of pacifist organisation Peace Pledge Union and local historian and musician Matthew Crampton, who chaired the event, to discuss the novel’s central theme – the pioneering facial reconstruction work of Dr Harold Gillies during the war.