FORMER Poet Laureate Sir Andrew Motion is to visit the area next month to give a reading at the Old Chapel in Calstock.

Sir Andrew, who was poet laureate from 1999 until 2009, received a knighthood last year for services to poetry. He developed new audiences during his ten years as poet laureate, a period he admitted to finding difficult.

He also managed to extend the scope of the job that came with no job description, making things easier for his successors.

He wrote pieces for a variety of organisations, including the Salvation Army, ChildLine, the TUC and the BBC, where audiences heard his tributes on the death of Harry Patch, the last surviving soldier to have fought in the first world war.

Sir Andrew also set up the Poetry Archive with Richard Carrington, a resource where poets can be heard reading their own work – there are crackly snippets from an 1889 recording by Robert Browning and a magisterial rendering of The Lake Isle of Innisfree by W B Yeats, as well as recordings by many contemporary poets.

Sir Andrew will be reading poetry, old and new, and chatting to the audience at The Old Chapel in Calstock on Thursday October 14 at 7.30 p.m.

Tickets, priced from £5 to £8, can be reserved by phoning 01822 834465 or emailing [email protected]">[email protected] The gallery bar will be open from 7pm and books will be on sale.