AS FAR as writing skills are concerned Tony Harrison has them by the bucket loads.

No stranger to controversy, his poems and theatre work has drawn huge acclaim in this country and abroad.

His much-vaunted Selected Poems was first published in 1984, and in 1995 he filed poems from the front line in Bosnia for the Guardian.

Wordsworth Trust director Robert Woof certainly knows his onions where the literary world is concerned as he has booked the charismatic Mr Harrison for a Summer Readings 2000 appearance on Tuesday (September 26) at the Thistle Hotel, Grasmere.

With a conviction that "it's all verse" Tony Harrison has even written and directed films like Prometheus, given an exclusive showing by Zeffirellis owner Derek Cook in his Ambleside cinema last year.

The film is based on the Greek legend of Prometheus who stole fire from the gods.

And Tony turned the classic story into a modern setting, basing the picture in a Yorkshire mining community.

Born in Leeds he recalls being "ravenous" for knowledge, but his parents were nervous of his academic success: "They felt if you're launched on a path of education, it would take you completely away from them, and it does," he explained.

His work has been a lifelong struggle to respect the powers of imagination and make them accessible:

"What I am proud of is that I can read poems about my parents in Leeds or Bradford, and men especially are suddenly sobbing in the audience."

The popular season of readings is drawing to a poetic conclusion with wordsmiths Anne and Peter Sansom appearing on October 3 (6pm) and Australia's unofficial laureate, Les Murray, on October 10 (6pm).

For further details and bookings call 015394-35544.