"Never trust a journalist,

Hostile, friendly, sober, p***ed,

Male or female - that's the rule.

When tempted to confide, resist.

Never trust a

journalist."

THE words from one of best-selling poet Wendy Cope's works did not put me off when I ventured along to one of Bromsgrove-based WORDS' popular Friday night sessions, writes Lucy Searle.

Each year WORDS, which was formed in 1979, presents a programme of lecturers and performances by writers, dramatists and poets.

I went along to a recent session where poet Wendy Cope, author of Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis - a bestseller in the late 1980s, read a selection of her work and discussed it with the audience.

I first came across her work, which is funny, accessible and easy to understand, in a book entitled 101 Poems That Could Save Your Life - An Anthology of Emotional First Aid.

Her poems, some of which are only a few lines long, deal with experiences well-known to her readers - they are simple truths of life, is one way they have been described.

She is renowned as one of Britain's funniest poets and she did not disappoint the large crowd which gathered at the conference room at LG Harris and Company, in Stoke Prior.

She read a wide selection of her poems and discussed them with the audience before taking 'requests' from those eager to hear their favourite poem direct from the author's mouth.

At the end of the evening, the straight-talking poet, who refused to name her favourite contemporary poet "with a journalist in the room", took questions from the audience.

The programme offered by WORDS is varied and this season has included an appearance by well-known actress and writer Eleanor Bron who presented her thoughts on the interpretation of Shakespeare's work.

The next meeting, on Friday, September 27, is entitled Drama: Who Needs It? with Alan Plater.

Alan, whose career spans writing episodes of Z Cars in the 1960s to Blonde Bombshells in 2000, will reflect on 40 years spent writing drama for radio, television, theatre and films.

The group encourages anyone to take up membership or to simply attend individual events.

For more information, call the ticket secretary on 01905 774520.