Exciting news! Tom Pickard reads in Durham 27th February 2014

The Annual Basil Bunting Memorial Reading presents: Tom Pickard: a Reading and Discussion. We are honoured and delighted to invite you to hear Tom read from his forthcoming collection: Hoyoot: Collected Poems and Songs  and talk about his life and work with Annabel Haynes. The event, plus drinks reception, is free and open to all. Please feel welcome to spread this invitation to all who would be interested. We look forward to seeing you there. Doors open from 7.15pm, event starts 7.30pm. Organised in collaboration with The Durham University Centre for Poetry and Poetics. Any queries should be directed to Annabel Haynes annabel.haynes@durham.ac.uk One of the country's greatest contemporary poets, Tom Pickard was born in Newcastle. In his teens he met Basil Bunting, and encouraged him to pick up his pen again, leading to the publication of Bunting's most famous poem, Briggflatts. Tom and Connie Pickard set up the Morden Tower reading series, bookshop and performance space in Newcastle in the 1960s, where famous poets, musicians and artists from all over the world have gathered and performed ever since. Tom's first book, High on the Walls, was first published in 1967, and much work - including prose work and films - followed. His most recent work includes a folk opera collaboration with John Harle, The Ballad of Jamie Allen, which recounts the story of a notorious border character (who died in prison under Elvet Bridge); and The Dark Months of May (Flood Editions, 2004). His eagerly-awaited collected poems and songs, Hoyoot, is due out this year on Carcanet Press.