HUMANITIES Staveley Poetry publication celebrates young writers’ work A new publication features more than 50 of the best poems written by Tonbridge boys for the School’s Staveley Poetry Prize. The competition, which has run for more than half a century, is named after a remarkable teacher at Tonbridge, Tom Staveley, who taught and inspired Sidney Keyes, one of the greatest poets of the Second World War. The English Department’s Peter Carpenter said: “The latest competition prompted more than 120 entries. We thought that the quality and range of the poems was remarkable and merited a publication, and so we produced an 80-page booklet to showcase the best of the boys’ work.
We hope everybody enjoys the poems on offer – there is a lot of fine writing within the pages.” The Staveley Prize was judged by renowned poet Jonathan Edwards, pictured below (centre) on a visit to Tonbridge. Jonathan was also a judge for the 2020 National Poetry Competition run by the Poetry Society, the biggest and most prestigious UK poetry prize.
After commending the high quality of the entries, Jonathan chose overall winners for the three age groups. Archie Capon (WH5) won the Senior Prize, Jack Walder (PS2) was selected for the Intermediate Prize, and James Tam (MH1) won the Novi Prize.
The new publication features the poems awarded first, second and third prize in each category, as well as all the entries that were either Highly Commended or Shortlisted.
