Mario Petrucci has become a regular visitor to our annual Book Week celebrations. His writing workshops always bring out the best in the students, stretching the gifted and talented and offering a meaningful and accessible route for the less able, and those who are usually nervous of submitting ideas to paper. Especially valuable are his reading workshops which are innovative and exciting, and enable even reluctant readers to explore a range of challenging poetry enthusiastically and fearlessly.

Perhaps because he is a former teacher himself, Mario knows exactly how to pitch a session, so that students are engaged and interested from the start, and, perhaps, most importantly, confident enough to express their own views and to wrestle with poetry that neither patronises them nor leaves them scratching their heads. Our thanks to Mario Petrucci for making poetry real and alive. We’re already looking forward to next year!

Adam Simmonds

St. Edmund’s College

Ware

March 2009