Morpeth Library - John Hegley "New and Selected Potatoes"

NEW AND SELECTED POTATOES

New and Selected potatoes is the spud-in-cheek title of the 2012 Bloodaxe compilation of 38 years work which is here in the library, added-to by further newness, with a focus on the author's educational activity.

Musical accompaniment includes a train whistle from Didcot Railway Centre.

John will welcome a short (and sharp) performance from poet Eileen Jones, who co-edited the Iron Book of new Humorous Verse, and the IRON book of Tree Poetry.

The Bloodaxe selection highlights a story-telling facility which is extended in the event; themes of family continue: a brash brother-in-law, an enigmatic French grandmother and a daughter who is a deft dog draftsperson.

Audiences are invited to sing - and gesticulate in places; the Observer commented 'Hegley is to potatoes what Wordsworth has been to daffodils.' There is more about Keats than Wordsworth, and a little about Caravaggio in an evening designed for adults, but not unsuitable for the odd nine-year-old.

Biography

John Hegley was born in North London to whose environs he has returned, after education in Luton, Bristol and the University of Bradford. He has for many years been involved in the creation of songs, poems, books, radio programmes, festival performances and cardboard animals.

A former BBC on-line poet and poet in residence at Keats House, he was one of the guest performers at a women's prison, in Medellin, Columbia, has been honoured with a doctorate from the University of Bedfordshire, was nominated for the Edinburgh Fringe Perrier Award and described in The Independent as 'awesomely mundane'.