McCartney to read at Poetry Olympics

Paul McCartney is taking to the West End stage to give a recital of his verse in a celebration to mark National Poetry Day.

The ex-Beatle will treat audiences to previously unheard material at the Poetry Olympics event.

McCartney, 58, published his anthology, Blackbird Singing, last year and has given public recitals in Liverpool, New York and the Hay-on-Wye literary festival, but this is the first time he has read his work in London.

He will be joined by Frieda Hughes, the daughter of the late poet laureate Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, and a host of other poets at the 21st Poetry Olympics.

They will perform in a ‘‘poetry marathon’’ to mark the resurgence of verse in Britain, said organiser Michael Horovitz, who edited Paul’s anthology.

Mr Horowitz launched the event at Westminster Abbey in 1980 and it has since grown in popularity.

This year Patience Agbabi, Inge Elsa Laird, Fran Landesman, Lemn Sissay and Tom Pickard will join McCartney, Hughes and Horowitz on stage.

The Poetry Olympics will be held at the Queen’s Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue on October 4.