Zephaniah treated the awestruck audience at Bishop Luffa to a collection of his poems, featuring topics ranging from library romance to Stephen Lawrence, before opening the floor up for questions.

Zephaniah was excluded from school at the age of 13 for scrawling his poetry on the toilet wall and signing it with his name.

He was in and out of borstal prison, mainly for stealing, and did not achieve any school qualifications, although today it is quite a different story.

Despite of his own school record, Birmingham-born Zephaniah now has 13 honorary doctorates and counts Nelson Mandela among his fans.

While he likes to write about serious subjects he writes about them 'done funny, to illustrate the idiocy'. As a worldwide roaming poet he believes visiting schools is paramount.

He said: "When I was at school we had a visiting fireman, a visiting policeman, but no poets."

After the talk, in front of 600 students, Zephaniah concluded with his poem Talking Turkeys – a plate-side view of Christmas.


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