HE was a poet, journalist, artist's model, conscientious objector and RAF officer, and mixed with such literary giants James Joyce and W B Yeats.

Now people can learn all about Basil Bunting at an exhibition where photographs charting the extraordinary life of the North-East poet are on display at Durham University's Palace Green library.

Bunting is one of the most important English poets of the 20th Century, and was a part of the 1920s literary scene, rubbing shoulders with the likes of TS Eliot, WB Yeats and Ezra Pound.

The Northumberland-born poet spent the First World War imprisoned as a conscientious objector, but when the Second World War broke out he signed up to the RAF, first working as a translator in Tehran and then as a squadron leader. He then went on to become a diplomat and is even thought to have worked as a spy.

Between the wars, Bunting worked in Italy and Spain, in London as journalist and as a sailor on a millionaire's yacht. In 1952, he became a newspaper sub-editor in Newcastle.

It was 13 years later, when he published his poem Briggflatts, that Bunting received universal recognition. Following his death, in 1985, the university established the Basil Bunting Poetry Centre. Today, it possesses the largest collection of his work in the world.

Assistant librarian Richard Higgins said the exhibition, Into The Lens, features family albums, donated by Bunting's widow, Sima, and children Tom and Maria.

Into The Lens runs until November 15, from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday, and, from October 5, for a limited opening time on Saturdays and Sundays.