Ledbury Poetry Festival events include sessions where well-known personalities, not usually poets, discuss the poetry they would like to have with them if castaway on a desert island.
Comedian, actor, presenter and writer, Alexei Sayle shares his favourite poems with Jonathan Davidson. Alexei Sayle’s television work as a writer and performer includes The Young Ones, Alexei Sayle’s Stuff, …[Read More]
Hugh Dennis found fame with The Mary Whitehouse Experience and as an actor and comedian is known and loved for The Now Show, Outnumbered, Mock the Week and cult hit …[Read More]
Paddy Ashdown was the Liberal Party leader. He is the author of seven books and an outspoken critic of Brexit. He shares the poems that have travelled with him though his life …[Read More]
Community Hall Peter Tatchell has campaigned since 1967 on issues of human rights, democracy, LGBT freedom and global justice. In 1994, he named 10 Anglican bishops and urged them to …[Read More]
Community Hall Dame Eileen Atkins was born in a Salvation Army Women’s Hostel in north London. Her father was a gas meter reader; her mother, a seamstress and barmaid. A …[Read More]
Community Hall Edmund de Waal is an artist and writer. He is best known for his large scale installations of porcelain vessels which are informed by his passion for architecture, …[Read More]
Shirley Williams shares her ‘desert island poems’ with Ursula Owen. The Lib-Dem grandee reflects on a life in politics, her memories of her mother Vera Brittain whose celebrated memoir, Testament …[Read More]
Former Python, celebrated travel writer and documentary maker, national treasure Michael Palin shares his ‘desert island poems’ with Mark Fisher allowing us to enjoy the poems that have travelled with …[Read More]
Festival poet in residence John Burnside tells Mark Fisher about his essential poems. Burnside is the author of eleven collections of poetry and five works of fiction and teaches Creative …[Read More]
Clare Short was MP for Birmingham Ladywood for 27 years and Secretary of State for International Development. In 2003, Clare resigned from the government over the Iraq war and later …[Read More]
