A PROLIFIC poet and literary festival director will be giving a Bromsgrove group its final talk of the year this weekend.

Dr Charles Bennett will be speaking to members of WORDS at the L.G. Harris Brushworks conference room, in Stoke Prior, this Friday.

Dr Bennett was born in 1954 in the north west of England and started work at 16. However, when he was 30 he won a scholarship to study at University College London, which also enabled him to live in the United States of America for a year.

On his return he completed his doctorate on contemporary Irish poetry. He had his own work 'Wintergreen' published in April 2002 to critical acclaim.

Most recently he has taken over the post of director and administrator of the Ledbury Poetry Festival and will talk about this at the Hanbury Road meeting. It will start at 8pm.

Dr Bennett will be replacing Peter Florence, who was going to speak at the meeting but had to cancel due to unforeseen circumstances.

This talk is set to round-off another successful year for WORDS, which saw the sell-out visit from Poet Laureate Andrew Motion back in June.

Dominic Hibberd's lecture on war poet Wilfred Owen and Peter Conradi's talk on Iris Murdoch were also highlights of 2003. They will shortly announce their programme for next year.

Tickets, priced £7.50 and £4, are available from Val Mason on 01527 871019 or Ottakar's Bookshop in Bromsgrove's High Street.