ONE of the UK’s favourite and most accessible poets, Luke Wright, returns to his roots performing poems from his new book The Toll next month.

The poems in The Toll visit the flat-roofed pubs and half bought couches of Brexit Britain as it struggles with doubt, duty and half-cut nights spent shouting impotently at Question Time on TV.

Wright’s poetry ranges from the laugh out loud funny to the tear-inducingly poignant and back again, as he effortlessly takes his audience with him on the ride switching emotional gears without missing a beat. Wright makes poetry accessible, normal even.

“I wrote these poems over the last three years,” says Luke. “There’s a range of subject matter including lots of stuff about family, about England, and about heartache. It's about The Toll that life takes on you, but also about duty and trying to do the right thing. As ever in my work, politics and social issues lurk in the background ready to pounce …”

Luke Wright is a poet, theatre maker and broadcaster who has written and starred in eight solo shows of his poetry as well as ‘What I Learned from Johnny Bevan’, the play that sold out a three-week run at London’s Soho Theatre and toured extensively. It won a Fringe First award for new writing, The Stage Award For Acting Excellence, The Saboteur Award for Best Spoken Word Show and is currently nominated for an Off West End Award. It was published in both hardback and paperback.

He tours the world each year (as far afield as China and Australia) with his unique brand of poetry and can often be seen opening for John Cooper Clarke. His verse documentaries on Channel 4 have been enjoyed by millions of viewers and his poems can often be heard on BBC Radios 3 & 4 and sometimes further afield. He has been a regular contributor to Sony Award-winning Saturday Live and has numerous main channel TV appearances under his belt. Luke curates the spoken word line-ups at The Latitude Festival, Festival Number 6 and The Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Spend an evening with a gifted and compelling raconteur at the top of his game, as he spits out visceral, inventive verse that sweats, bleeds and sings at Lighthouse, Poole’s Centre for the Arts on 16 June.