​John Dougherty performed poems, stories, and songs from his books including Dinosaurs and Dinner Ladies, The Hare-Shaped Hole, and Zooming the Zoo. Families gathered at the Ledbury Library on March 7 to hear the author talk about how school ruined poetry for him. “School made me feel like there were rules to poetry and I did not know what the rules were. It took me a long time to realise that’s not what poetry is. Poetry belongs to everybody,” Dougherty told the children. He performed his poems on subject matter including letting dogs on furniture and whether it hurt Rapunzel when the prince climbed her hair. When telling the children not to let their dogs on furniture, one child replied, “why don’t you just clean the dog” and another followed “why don’t you shout at the dog — get outside!” Dougherty has won prizes including the Oscar’s Book Prize and the United Kingdom Literary Association award. “My main aim is to encourage reading for pleasure. It’s so important. If I was in charge of education, reading for pleasure would be at the absolute heart of the primary school curriculum,” Dougherty said. At the end of the session, Dougherty performed a local schoolgirl’s poem. She won a poetry competition with “Ryan the Lion”. “To see towns like this working towards getting kids to understand and enjoy the creative arts is wonderful,” Dougherty added.