Coventry Lord Mayor’s Committee for Peace and Reconciliation received a donation of £2000 from Coventry citizen Joyce Jones with the aim of encouraging children at the top of primary schools in Coventry to read, write and enjoy poetry. “When I was that age I didn’t like poetry,” Joyce says, “but I think if I had been taught differently I might have begun to enjoy it at that important age, and taken the love of poetry with me into secondary school.”

Joyce has since discovered the joy of poetry and has published a book containing her own poems, illustrated by her own drawings.

The Committee will be using this generous gift during 2021 to achieve her aims, which fit in well with Coventry as the UK City of Culture.