LEDBURY Poetry Festival will have it’s say on who should be the next Poet Laureate, in a move which reveals the growing national standing of the popular Festival.

The Festival’s artistic director, Chloe Garner,

has been selected to be on the advisory panel which will make a recommendation to The Queen.

Ms Garner said: “It is exciting that Ledbury Poetry Festival will contribute to the selection of the next Poet Laureate. The fact that Ledbury Poetry Festival is involved reflects how influential the Festival has become and is such a positive endorsement.”

The panel is made up of experts from across the arts sector covering a range of ages, backgrounds and UK regions.

The panel will offer its views and suggestions on the scope and purpose of the next Poet Laureate, dubbed ‘the nation’s poet’, with a recommendation put to Her Majesty The Queen, who will make the final decision.

The role will be for a ten year period.

Representatives from the British Council, Arts Council England, Royal Society of Literature, Poetry Society, Poetry Book Society, Forward Arts Foundation and Society of Authors are also included in the panel.

Jeremy Wright, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, said: “Poetry has the expressive power to connect us to people, places and ideas that we otherwise wouldn’t, and cut across political, social and cultural divides to reach out to us all.

“The role of Poet Laureate reflects Britain’s global tradition for producing literary icons. As we start the selection process for the next decade, I would like to pay tribute to the present Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy for her dedicated service.”

Since the role of Poet Laureate was established in 1668, incumbents have included William Wordsworth, Ted Hughes and Dame Carol Ann Duffy, the first woman and Scot in the role.

When she completes her ten-year term in April 2019, Duffy – well-known for her range of monologues, love poems, children’s rhymes and plays - will have written poems to mark the deaths of Henry Allingham and Harry Patch (the last two British soldiers to fight in the First World War), the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, and even David Beckham’s injured Achilles in the run-up to the 2010 World Cup.