On National Poetry Day, Virginia Astley will be celebrating the English river in poetry, photographs and music.

Virginia has been a much admired songwriter and musician since the 1980s, and this is her first book-length poetry collection.

Virginia grew up by the upper reaches of the Thames, and The English River is her response to the river and the landscapes it winds through, telling the tale of the passage of a river and the passage of her life.

Gillian Clarke, the national poet of Wales, called it ‘a beautiful book’. Virginia will be accompanied by her daughter Florence on the harp.