Helena Bonham Carter becomes London Library's first female president

The actress has been a member of the London Library for 36 years

Helena Bonham Carter is to become the first female president of a 181-year-old library that counts Charles Dickens as one of its founding members.

The actress, who is known for the Harry Potter films and The Crown television series, will become the London Library's 14th president.

She takes over from English lyricist and author, Sir Tim Rice.

The Londoner has been a member of the private library in St James's Square, central London, since 1986.

"I am proud to support this incredible and vital establishment," she said.

"The library is truly a place like no other, inspiring and supporting writers for over 180 years, many of whom have in some way informed my own career and those of actors everywhere.

"The library's unique resources, history and membership help to connect the literary greats of the past with those of the future."

The London Library - which is funded by memberships - was established in 1841, before state-funded libraries existed.

Membership currently costs £525 a year, reduced to half for partners and under 30s.

The London Library opened in 1841

The library said Bonham Carter's career links her to its past members.

She rose to prominence in 1985 by playing Lucy Honeychurch in the film adaptation of the novel A Room With A View, written by the library's former vice president, E.M. Forster.

In 2012, Bonham Carter played Miss Havisham in an adaptation of founding member Charles Dickens's Great Expectations. She has also played Eudoria Holmes in the Enola Holmes films based on characters created by library member Arthur Conan Doyle.

During its history, social theorist Harriet Martineau, suffragette Christabel Pankhurst and the first woman to qualify in Britain as a physician and surgeon, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, have been members.

Membership has also been taken up by writers Virginia Woolf, Angela Carter, Daphne du Maurier, Muriel Spark and Beryl Bainbridge, and actress Diana Rigg and artist Vanessa Bell.

Philip Marshall, director of The London Library, said: "With a passion for books and stories, and a long-standing love of the library, Helena is ideally placed to promote this tremendous resource for the creative and curious."

Bonham Carter was appointed to the honorary position by trustees following Sir Tim's five-year tenure.

Her role will involve working on the library's emerging writers and schools programmes.

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