A PERFORMANCE by the Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy and her ‘court musician’ John Sampson in Malvern has been hailed as a great success.
More than 200 people attended the event at Malvern Cube last Friday (May 5) which had been organised by the Malvern Book Co-operative as part of its fifth birthday celebrations
Carol read a selection of poems from her well-known collections The World’s Wife, Rapture and The Bees while John provided musical interludes and accompaniment to some of the poems.
Audience member Evelyn Spence said, “I was surprised by the variety of the performance – there were love poems and poems commemorating the Great War and the Hillsborough tragedy.
“My favourites were those from The World’s Wife – they were extremely funny as well as thought-provoking.
“Carol Ann was very generous with her time after the performance, chatting with people and signing lots of books.”
Tom Padfield of the Malvern Book Co-operative, added, “The evening was a perfect celebration of our fifth birthday.
“Many of our members and regular customers came along, as well as lots of new faces, and we were particularly pleased by the wide range of ages that Carol Ann Duffy attracted.
“Carol Ann and John also very kindly visited The Elms School in Colwall with us during the day, where they entertained children from both The Elms and Colwall Primary School with a musical performance of her contemporary fairy tale The Princess’ Blankets, as well as other poems and tunes.
“We’re sure we’ve helped inspire the next generation of poetry readers there.”
