A Celebration of Poetry with Roger McGough was enjoyed by a sellout audience

Taking place at St Margaret's Church Warnham on Saturday 14th October 2023, the event included readings by our winning poets from this year's competition, the composer Paul G Terry and the Freedom Ensemble delivering a stunning performance of the Rise Like Lions and stellar performances from our patron Barry Smith and musician and poet Chris Hardy who joined forces to perform two of Percy Bysshe Shelley's most popular poems, 'Ozimandias' and 'To a Skylark'

And if that was not enough our very special guest, Roger McGough then entertained the audience with some of his best known poems in a set that demonstrated his fantastic wit and insight, eloquently justifying his titles of both the 'people's poet' and 'the patron saint of poetry'.

The evening was expertly hosted by Radio 4 presenter Chris Aldridge and poetry competition and well known Sussex poet Simon Zec.

The SMP would like to thank everyone who made it a very special evening including St Margaret's Church who welcomed us into the church where Shelley was baptised for a second year, and our competition sponsors, The Radical Tea Towel Company and The Steyning Bookshop. Thank you to everyone who joined us for what was a truly exceptional evening.