Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy charms Uttlesford pupils

POET laureate Carol Ann Duffy launched this year s Saffron Walden Literature Festival with two performances at Friends School on Friday. Accompanied by virtuoso musician John Sampson and his collection of instruments, Carol Ann Duffy charmed an audience

POET laureate Carol Ann Duffy launched this year's Saffron Walden Literature Festival with two performances at Friends' School on Friday.

Accompanied by virtuoso musician John Sampson and his collection of instruments, Carol Ann Duffy charmed an audience of children and adults with her new book The Princess's Blankets.

During the day she performed to children from six primary schools in Saffron Walden - Friends' Junior School, Dame Bradbury's, RA Butler, Katherine Semar, St Thomas More and Howe Green House School in Great Hallingbury.

Marketing assistant from Friends' School, Kirsten Batcheler, said: "The children responded really well to the performance because it was packed with music and jokes and had some audience participation."

In the evening a sell-out crowd of more than 250 adults watched the poet who was performing in Saffron Walden as part of the 'Life in Words' literary festival organised by Harts Events.

Tomorrow (Friday September 25) at 8pm, travel writer Andrew Eames - who wrote the popular 8.55 to Baghdad - will speak at Dame Bradbury's School on Ashdon Road.

On Saturday three Walden Writers will discuss their approaches to creating a good read from 2pm to 5pm at the Friends' Meeting House on the High Street.

And at 2pm on Sunday, publisher Diana Athill will talk about her memoirs, Somewhere Towards the End, at Dame Bradbury's.

All tickets can be purchased from the Tourist Information Centre on the Market Square. For more information visit www.hartsevents.tbpcontrol.co.uk