A local writer and photographer held an evening of poetry reading in the UK to help launch her latest book.

Poet, photographer and filmmaker Janet Lees (above) appeared at the intimate Smokey Joes cafe, in Cheltenham last Thursday to launch her book ’A Bag of Sky’.

The island-based artist had previously won the Frosted Fires First poetry pamphlet competition, run by the Cheltenham Poetry Festival earlier this year.

One of the prizes was to have her collection published and launched at a special evening in the UK.

Janet read excerpts from her book, and was also joined by fellow UK writers Josephine Lay, Marilyn Timms and Angela France.

On winning the competition, her writing and poetry was praised by the festival judges, saying that ’the broad range of fine-tuned emotions they evoke in print was deepened by the quiet passion of her reading whether the mood was comedy, irony, raunchy, wistful, or grieving’.

Janet will also be a headline poet at the festival in 2020.