LOCHGELLY Centre will be a visiting post for the Poet Laureat.

Balwearie High School is thrilled that the current Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, has agreed to travel to Fife this month at the school’s invitation.

Many of Balwearie’s senior pupils are studying her work in preparation for their National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher English examinations, and the chance to hear her read and discuss her work is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Balwearie teacher, Clare Lynch, said, “We have had lots of interest and have already sold many tickets in school to Balwearie pupils, parents and teachers. We are also pleased to be supported by many other Fife schools. “The remainder of tickets for the evening are currently on sale at the Lochgelly Theatre box office (tel 01592 583303)”.

Appointed Poet Laureate in 2009, Carol Ann Duffy’s first laureate poem was a sonnet on the British MPs’ expenses scandal; other subjects include the deaths of Henry Allingham and Harry Patch, the last two British soldiers to fight in World War I (‘Last Post’); the Achilles tendon injury that left England footballer David Beckham out of the 2010 FIFA World Cup (‘Achilles – for David Beckham’); the Iraq inquiry and the war in Afghanistan (‘The Big Ask’), and the Royal Mail’s plans to delete the names of counties from postal addresses (‘The Counties’).

Her Laureateship has been marked by her generous creation of opportunities for other poets: getting many poets to write for notable occasions such as the wedding of Prince William and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee; gathering them for readings in London and Edinburgh to raise money for victims of the Haiti earthquake in 2009; and donating her Laureate payment as a Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry.

Carol Ann Duffy will be joined by her long term friend, professional musician, composer and actor, John Sampson, who has collaborated with the BBC on many musical projects and regularly appears at the Fringe in Edinburgh. His accomplished brand of musical comedy is great fun and he plays an incredible range of instruments, providing highly entertaining interludes between Carol Ann Duffy’s readings.