Long Stratton public library will be marking World Book Day by playing host to one of the country's major literary partnerships on March 6, when writers Anthony and Ann Thwaite, who live in nearby Tharston, will be present to give a talk to promote National Year of Reading.

Long Stratton public library will be marking World Book Day by playing host to one of the country's major literary partnerships on March 6, when writers Anthony and Ann Thwaite, who live in nearby Tharston, will be present to give a talk to promote National Year of Reading.

Chester-born Anthony Thwaite, who was made an OBE for services to poetry in 1992, is a former lecturer at Tokyo University and literary editor of the New Statesman, and has published some 50 books, including more than a dozen volumes of his own poems.

His wife, Ann, has written a series of highly acclaimed biographies of such subjects as Winnie-the-Pooh creator A.A. Milne, Emily Tennyson, the wife of the celebrated Victorian poet laureate, and, most recently, Frances Hodgson Burnett, author of Little Lord Fauntleroy and the perennial children's classic, The Secret Garden.

Anthony Thwaite will be reading a selection of his poems, while both he and Ann Thwaite will be answering questions on their books, and discussing, amongst other topics, what life is like in a literary household.

The event, which begins at 11am, is open to any members of the public who wish to attend, whether or not they are members of the library, and light refreshments will be provided.