NOT content with his success at Herefordshire Festival, where he won the Crabtree Cup for open poetry, Peter Williams took his talent on the road, and competed at this year's Dudley Festival of Music, Drama and Dance.

It was ambition well rewarded as Peter came home with two cups, one for speaking a poem of his own composition and a second for reading a dramatic programme of his own choosing, including prose, drama and poetry.

"Dudley Festival attracts people from all over the country," Peter said.

"I'm gratified to have some success competing at national levels."

Peter, of Ross Road, Hereford, spends much of his time reading for other people's pleasure.

He reads at a hospice in Worcester, an old people's home in Ledbury, and for junior and senior classes at Hereford Cathedral School.

He also visits the Convent of Poor Clares in Much Birch, where they happily serve him tea and scones, which he then has to enjoy alone.

Peter was especially surprised to win a cup for a reading of his own poem, as he has only written two in the past 50 years!

Inspired by his classical archaeological studies, and a drawing of a vase depicting Zeus and Ganymede, Peter's work drew on themes used in myth and art over the past millennium.

His mission in life is to encourage others to think of poetry as something to speak aloud.

"The music and the rhythms are just wonderful," he said.