Friday 16 November was an evening to remember for me and I hope too, for the sixty or so members of the audience. Well done and thank you to everyone who came and made Friday such a success. A special thanks to Kay Easson at the Lit and Phil for inviting Stephen Harrison and myself to deliver this event.

I owe a big thank-you to Professor Stephen Harrison who came up from Oxford specially to give commentaries on how my poems relate to the Horatian texts and I know from the feedback I’ve had so far that everyone found his explanations very interesting and enlightening.

After the event a twelve of us went to supper and I must say I felt very supported by the classics professors, lecturers and senior lecturers from Newcastle, Durham and Glasgow Universities.

For me this was a celebration not only of my own poetry but of Horace himself and the evening ending with a lovely supper made the whole event feel like a proper Horace symposium. In terms of nunc est bibendum, it was and we did! Cheers Horace!