Horsham joins poetry lovers around the world to celebrate Shelley bicentenary

In Horsham – the town most associated with his birth place and early years – members of The Shelley Memorial Project presented ‘Shout Out For Shelley’, an evening of poetry and music performed by five Sussex performers and poets.

Gareth Williams, Barry Smith, Charlotte Glason, Janine Booth and Attila the Stockbroker performed works from their own collections alongside their favourite Shelley poems, to mark Shelley’s position as the greatest radical poet in the English language.

BBC radio 4 presenter and news reader Chris Aldridge presided over the evening of social commentary through poetry which gave proof to Shelley’s assertion that ‘ poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.’

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Shout Out for Shelley was the second event in the Shelley Memorial Project’s Shelley 200 Festival, following on from Julian Sands highly acclaimed performance of ‘Keats and Shelley, Ghosts and Lovers’ which took place in St Mary’s Church, Horsham, in June.

The next festival event is ‘Shelley and Co’ a poetry and cream tea event taking place at the Alexander Hotel in Turners Hill on the afternoon of July 24.

Alexander House was once the home of Shelley’s grandmother and the hotel has sponsored the event which will take place in the Shelley Suite and will feature two award winning poets, Barry Smith and Stephanie Norgate, reading from their collections with some Shelley too.

For more details visit the Shelley Memorial Project Website www.shelleymemorialproject.co.uk or the Eventbrite site and search Shelley and Co.