THE Autumn in Malvern Festival continues with an important literary event on Saturday, October 14, at Colwall Village Hall.

Oxford professor, broadcaster and biographer, Kate Kennedy, has devised The Fateful Voyage, a sequence of poetry, prose and music that tells the story of the extraordinary friendship between the poet, Rupert Brooke, and two composers, F S Kelly and William Denis Browne.

The three all enlisted in the Hood Battalion in 1915 during the First World War and sailed together to take part in the Dardanelles campaign against the Turks.

Brook died during the village and was buried on the Greek island of Skyros, and Kelly and Brook went on to write the most famous account of the poet's last days, thereby cementing his reputation. However, both died in action soon afterwards.

The Fateful Voyage uncovers forgotten works, weaving together song, poetry, letters and diaries to dramatise their story, placing the two largely-forgotten composers, Browne and Kelly, back on the musical map.

Starting at 3pm, the events features the eminent tenor, Matthew Sandy, accompanied on piano by Simon Over, founder of the Southbank Sinfonia and former director of music at the House of Commons Church in London.

The event has been staged in association with the Friends of the Dymock Poets.

The festival exhibitions run until the end of October, two in Malvern Library Gallery, and one each in Malvern Priory, the Original Artwork Store and Elmslie House.

In the library Val Pitchford, a high-level abstract artist, has her work alongside watercolours by the Birmingham surrealist John Melville.

Rarely-seen paintings of Malvern Malvern are displayed in the priory, curated by local historian, Brian Iles.

And the Original Artwork Store in Graham Road is the venue for Images of Malvern, an exhibition of watercolour, oil and mixed-media paintings.