Poet Bert Flitcroft is hoping to reach out to a wider audience and encourage then to re-engage with poetry in which they recognise their own lives.

Bert will be at the Manor House in Ilkley with his Ilkley Literature Festival Fringe event, Getting On A Bit, on Sunday, from 3pm to 4pm.

He will read new poems and poems selected from his collection Singing Puccini At The Kitchen Sink – an informal event in which the audience will be invited to discuss and share their own response to the poetry.

Bert said: “I have become very aware of the generation of readers who do not engage with poetry because of earlier school experiences and because poetry seems to have very little to do with their everyday lives now.

“For this reason they would not normally attend a poetry event or make a bee-line for the poetry shelf.

“I would like to reach out to this wider audience, to encourage them to re-engage with poetry in which they will recognise their own lives.”