THIS year’s Ledbury Poetry Festival kicked off on Friday with the sights and sounds of French cafe life.

Ledbury poetry competition winner Mick Wood and Theatre Voliere, a troupe of actors from Strasbourg, present a moving theatre piece called Préverts Angels, which is set in 1940s Paris.

The company will also give a one day workshop at John Masefield High school, where students of French will experiment with different ways to perform Jacques Prévert’s poems using mime and dramatisation.

Ledbury artist Andrea McLean will give a talk about her painting A Contemporary Mappa Mundi, inspired by the work of poet William Blake, while Jim Denning joins Liz Berry and Ross Cogan to combine poetry and local cider. Highlights of the first weekend also include poet Paul Muldoon and writer Margaret Drabble talking to Peter Florence about the poems she has treasured throughout her life, and everyone in the audience gets rattles and shakers in a fun and raucous open mic event by Bang Said the Gun.

Artistic director Chloe Garner said: “My personal recommendation would be the visionary poet Jane Hirshfield who is travelling all the way from San Francisco to make an exclusive appearance at Ledbury.”

For more information on the Festival, which runs until July 8, call 0845 458 1743 or alternatively go online to poetry-festival.com