Poet in the City and Southwark Cathedral are delighted to present an evening of poetry and song celebrating the life and work of George Herbert.

George Herbert (1593-1633) is a pivotal figure in British poetry. Although unpublished during his lifetime, after death he quickly become hugely popular, widely influential and one of the most important poets of his and any age.

George Herbert's poetry will be read by the acclaimed actor Timothy West.

With a special live performance from the Cathedral's Merbecke Choir.

This unique event will feature the following speakers:

John Drury is Chaplain and Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. As Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, he studied Christian paintings and their meaning in Painting the Word. Music at Midnight (Penguin 2013) is the culmination of a lifetime's interest in Herbert, whose Complete Poetry Drury is now editing for Penguin Classics.

Gwyneth Lewis was National Poet of Wales 2005-06. Her last book, Sparrow Tree, won the Roland Mathias Poetry Award. In 2010 she was awarded a Society of Authors Cholmondeley Award. Her two memoirs are Sunbathing in the Rain and Two in a Boat.

Wendy Cope’s first collection of poems, Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis, was published in 1986, and in 1987 she received a Cholmondeley Award for Poetry. Two Cures for Love: Selected Poems 1979-2006 was published in 2008. In 2010 she was awarded an O.B.E.Her most recent collection of work, Family Values, was published by Faber in 2011.