Cream Teas and Romantic Poets

What better way to spend a spring afternoon (yes - spring does appear to have sprung!) than to have a cream tea at a Elizabethan manor house and listen to expert readers recalling the best of some of our Romantic poets. This weekend sees the Preview for the Cheltenham Poetry Festival and events got underway with the Festival Players - Kathryn Alderman, Frances March, Robin Gilbert Taylor and Peter Wyton - holding their audience spellbound with favourites such as Byron's "She Walks In Beauty" and Shelley's "Ozymandias" along with other lesser known poets and poems to whet the appetite for more. It was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon that was sold out almost as soon as the booking opened. There will be a repeat performance though, on March 16th, and reservations can be made with the Greenway Hotel in Shurdington (01242 862352) - well worth going if you're free.

The Festival Players