Poetry By Heart Central West Finalist

Emily Sandford and the other 40 county competition winners and their teachers gathered at Homerton College on Thursday 17th March for the Poetry by Heart final. In addition to watching fellow competitors recite, Emily enjoyed a range of activities including tours of Cambridge, creative writing workshops, guided relaxation sessions and talks on applying to Cambridge University.

Emily achieved outstanding success by winning the Birmingham & West Midlands country contest and competing in an extremely strong field in the Central West regional semi-final. She went on to win the Regional heat and represented the Central West as one of the eight finalists to recite in front of a distinguished panel of judges from the world of poetry including Andrew Motion, Jean Sprackland, Daljit Nagra, Patience Agbabi, Glyn Maxwell and Tim Dee.

It was a remarkable event and Emily’s performance of Mary Borden’s ‘Song of the Mud’ was very moving and made her a deserved winner!