A HIGHLY-ACCLAIMED poet visited a Darlington library to promote his latest work.

Bob Beagrie read extracts from his book, Endeavour: Newfound Notes, at Crown Street library, to a packed audience yesterday.

The Middlesbrough-based poet's work tells the story of Captain James Cook's first journey into the South Seas, told from the viewpoint of an enlisted seaman.

Mr Beagrie has won the Biscuit Poetry Prize in 2003, and has also received a New Writing North Time to Write award.

His performances have taken him to literary festivals across Europe and the UK, both as a solo poet, and with musicians.

At yesterday's event, organised by the library's poetry reading groups, Mr Beagrie said: "It is always enjoyable talking about why I write and what motivates me, and what happens to poetry once you lift it off the page and take it into the realm of spoken word performance, music, and physical theatre."

Mr Beagrie's work includes Gothic Horror, Heterogloss: Bus Shelter Observations, and Perkele.