‘Original and insightful’: Poet pays tribute to boys’ writing

More than 120 boys took part in the school’s Staveley Competition, which was judged by renowned poet Jonathan Edwards.

Named after inspirational Tonbridge teacher Tom Staveley, who taught the Second World War poet Sidney Keyes, the competition provides a platform for poetry writing at the school and has been running for more than half a century.

After commending the high quality of the entries, Jonathan Edwards chose overall winners for the three age groups. Archie Capon won the Senior Prize, Jack Walder was selected for the Intermediate Prize, and James Tam won the Novi (First Year) Prize.

In summing up, Jonathan wrote: “It was wonderful to see what these young writers have already achieved in their work, and to anticipate what they will go on to achieve.

“I’d thought it was impossible to write directly about the pandemic already. But some of the entries for this competition showed an ability to write about our current situation from original, insightful angles, going beyond the obvious, even at a time when this strange world is still very new to us all.

“Elsewhere, there was fascinating treatment of a wide range of subjects, from Oxfam shops to the shadows of pheasants, and from a lion’s roar to the music of Bach. I applaud the achievements of all these young writers, and am hugely grateful for the opportunity to read this work.”

Jonathan’s 2014 debut collection My Family and Other Superheroes was recently chosen by booksellers as one of their top 25 favourite poetry books of the last 25 years, following a survey by National Poetry Day. His second collection, Gen, won Wales Book of the Year People’s Choice 2019, and he is the new editor of Poetry Wales.

Tonbridge has a strong poetic tradition, fostered by an active creative writing society, annual residential writing weeks and ‘in house’ workshops given by published poets.

Pictured: Jonathan Edwards with some of the Tonbridge poets.