Take a bow, Graham Sherwood! Or rather, take another bow! Two years ago we reported that Graham, who manages the profile section for Write Out Loud and does a sterling job in welcoming all new subscribers, as well as commenting on many blogged poems, had won first prize in a poetry competition in his home city of Milton Keynes, with his poem ‘MK Fortean’.

Now he has discovered that his granddaughter Beatrix, herself a keen poet, has been studying her grandfather’s prize-winning poem in an English lesson. Graham told us:

“I entered the 2024 MK LitFest poetry competition and was successful in winning it. The organisation prints pamphlets every year following each year’s competition which are free to those included in it and can be purchased by the public at large at various places in MK (Waterstone’s etc).

“My granddaughter Beatrix is in her first year of secondary education at Hazeley school in Milton Keynes and is a keen poet. She added a Christmas poem to the Write Out Loud website via my profile this year and was delighted to get five flowers as feedback.

“This week she was having an English lesson at school and in her workbook, the lesson posed the question of ‘definitions of narrative voice’, and wanted an explanation of the differences between first, second and third person writing. On the opposite page to this question was my poem ‘MK Fortean’, written in the first person, as the example.

“I assume that the teacher has used the booklet ‘MinK 4 Tales from the City’, produced by MKLitFest as an example of local writing with which the pupils could answer the question. Imagine the teacher’s astonishment when Beatrix put her hand up and proudly said ‘that’s my Papa’!

"Delighted (and very surprised) as I obviously am, I am more delighted that the students are using local writing as well as the more celebrated poets in their studies, as wasn’t the case many years ago!”

We’re delighted, too, Graham! But not surprised, of course. Well done from all your colleagues at Write Out Loud!