A BLIND Dymock poet is to make his debut as a performer at this year's Ledbury Poetry Festival, at the tender age of 92.

Horace Dudfield was born in Dymock in 1924. He was inspired to write poetry after discovering Thomas Gray’s poem Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, which he can still recite by heart today.

Because he is blind, Mr Dudfield will also recite his own work by heart, at this year's festival.

Although he will be a first-timer at the Ledbury Poetry Festival, Mr Dudfield is no stranger to fame when it comes to his verses.

The festival's artistic director, Chloe Garner said: "Mr Dudfield performed his poem Dymock “Daffs” on BBC Countryfile and now he is making his debut, aged 92 years, at our festival.

"He will perform on Monday July 4 at the Festival Open Mic event. I read Horace’s poem The Dymock “Bobby” and laughed out loud. The clever use of rhyme and the mischievous twist at the end reminded me of Roald Dahl. I immediately got on the phone to invite Mr Dudfield to appear."

She added: "Horace told me that he can’t read his poems now because he is blind, but he can speak some of them from memory.”

Horace Dudfield’s poems include one about the old German gun that stood in front of Dymock Church. His poems are always about real people, such as Old Joe in The Ploughman, which contains the lines, "Although it was a day in May/The weather was quite foul/The hessian sack he wore on his head/Looked like an Abbots cowl."

Mr Dudfield’s wife Daisy shares a birthday with him and e is also 92 years old. They still live in Dymock near the Church and overlook the fields that were once filled with daffodils for miles around.

The 2016 Festival will also welcome poets including Carol Ann Duffy, James Fenton and stars including Eileen Atkins and Juliet Stevenson.