REVIEW: Andrew Marr’s visit to Ely Cathedral by Rosemary Westwell

Scottish broadcaster, journalist and ex-Cambridge University student Andrew Marr presented his new book “We British The poetry of a People” in Ely Cathedral last Wednesday.

He spoke with clarity and intelligence, giving us short excerpts of poetry that confirmed his opinion that it is through poetry that we know what people are thinking and how we can really understand people from the past.

It is no surprise that Andrew is a staunch supporter of school students having to read poetry.

Interspersed between the readings we were given insight into Andrew’s political knowledge and understanding. Corbyn, he described as ‘gracious and intelligent’, Trump as ‘dangerous’ and ‘a sharp operator’.

His prediction for the future is that it is a race between greed and fear overcoming humanity and the ingenuity of our scientists to change the world to combat this.

As with any good speaker, we were also given tastes of humour in verse and anecdotes of interesting historical characters that enlivened this unique presentation.

This fascinating talk was organized by Toppings Bookshop www.toppingsbookshop.co.uk.

Andrew can be seen in his show on BBC1 and he can be listened to in Radio 4’s ‘Start the Week’ contact Twitter @AndrewMarr9 .