Poet Laureate to headline Thornbury Arts Festival (From Gazette Series)

Poet Laureate to headline Thornbury Arts Festival

9:16am Tuesday 19th March 2013 in News By Marion Sauvebois

THE POET Laureate will enchant Thornbury festival-goers when she previews some of her unpublished material at an exclusive reading next month.

In a major tour de force, organisers have snapped up none other than world-renowned poet Carol Ann Duffy who will read some of her most famous work at a memorable event at the Armstrong Hall on Saturday, April 27.

The reading cum dramatic performance will see the Scottish writer recite from The World’s Wife, her award-winning collection The Bees as well as never-seen material to acoustic music.

Woodwind player John Sampson will accompany Ms Duffy througout the reading, weaving her evocative words with unusual rhythms and melodies.

Thornbury Arts Festival director Liz Wilkins told the Gazette: "The whole event promises to be quite spectacular. In The World’s Wife she reveals the foibles of the great, the ghastly and the ordinary bloke.

"The result is a melange of history lesson, fairy tale and modern-day domestic tragedy, with the occasional joke thrown in for good measure." Ms Duffy was the first woman to be appointed Poet Laureate in 2009.

She has received a host of prestigious awards for her popular collections of poems throughout her career including the Whitbread Poetry Award in 1993 and the T.S. Eliot Prize in 2005. The event is being sponsored by Thornbury wealth management firm Charterbridge.

To book tickets to the reading visit www.thornburyartsfestival.com