At last night’s event Benjamin, who spent 40 years presenting television programmes - famously as a presenter on Play School - and has written numerous books herself, said: “Books are so important in children’s lives. Books mean lifelong learning and we should never miss an opportunity to give children a delicious book. Stir them up!”

Her autobiography, Coming to England, has just been reissued in a 20th anniversary edition.

The awards are organised by the BPIF and supported by Oxford Brookes University, The Bookseller and The Publishers Association.

BPIF chief executive Charles Jarrold said the event had garnered a record number of entries, and that it “had been another good year for books”.

“Physical book sales grew, e-book sales declined,” he said, and quoted Stephen Fry, Frank Zappa and Groucho Marx in his own tribute to the medium.

The big winner on the night was The Folio Society, which picked up three awards including Best British Book and Book of the Year for its Alice in Wonderland limited edition.

The category winners were:

• The Folio Society, for Folio Collectables in the Brand/Series Identity category, printed by Kosel in Germany.
• Limited Edition & Fine Binding was won by the Fleece Press for Pen, Paper & a Box of Paints, printed by C&C Offset Hong Kong.
• Isola Press won the Self-Published Books category for Bunker Research, printed by Generation Press in Brighton.
• Best Digitally Printed book went to Artful Dodgers Imaging’s Inherent Madness, printed by Pureprint with production management by Hurtwood Press.
• The Interactive Multimedia Book winner was Richard Dawkins Reissues, published by Penguin Press and printed by St Ives Clays.
• CCS Bard College won the Exhibition Catalogue category for Invisible Adversaries, printed by MM Artbook in the Netherlands.
• Photographic Books (including art and architecture monographs) went to Gloria Cortina Mexico, published by Editorial RM and printed by Push Print.
• Best Graphic Novel was Take it as a Compliment, published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers’ Singing Dragon imprint, and printed by Broad Link Enterprise in Hong Kong.
• Baddeley Brothers won the Trade Illustrated category for its company history, published by Spitalfields Life Books and printed by Pureprint, with tip-ins by Baddeley Brothers.
• Lifestyle Illustrated was won by Bloomsbury Publishing for Heirloom Harvest, printed by C&C Offset in Hong Kong.
• The Literature award went to Cain, Penned in the Margins, printed by CPI Group.
• Best in the Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Education category was the Kids Get Coding series published by Hachette Children’s Group, and printed by Wing King Tong in Hong Kong.
• Pan Macmillan won Scholarly, Academic & Reference Books award for An Atlas of Countries that Don’t Exist, printed by Tien Wah Press in Singapore.
• The Children’s Trade (up to 8 years) award went to Old Barn Books for Give & Take, printed by Toppan Excel in Hong Kong.
• The Children’s Trade (9-16 years) category was won by Particular Books for The Fox & the Star, printed by Graphicom in Italy.
• Paul Baggaley won Best Jacket/Cover Design for Not Working, printed by CPI Group.
• Best Student Book went to Aisling Lee from Dublin’s National College of Art & Design, for 17 Times Over, printed by The Type Bureau in Dublin.
• Best British Book and Book of the Year went to the Folio Society’s Alice in Wonderland limited edition, which involved four printers: Smith Settle Printing & Bookbinding in Leeds, London’s Napier Jones, New Leaf Editions in Vancouver, and The Logan Press in Wellingborough.