Wirral songwriter Dean Johnson has completed his musical trilogy of local icons, which have included war poet Wilfred Owen (Bullets and Daffodils), and George Mallory and Sandy Irvine (Icepicks and Violets), with a biography of Birkenhead's greatest lost poet.
Arthur Seymour John Tessimond was born in Claughton Village in 1902. His poems were little known in his lifetime, but were rediscovered in the 1970s, becoming acclaimed and influential.
Dean has set them to music in a piece entitled Tessimond's Cats and Fiddles and will première the work (which is narrated by Oliver Reed's son Mark) at West Kirby Arts Centre as part of the Wirral Festival of Firsts on July 7.
The evening will conclude with Johnson's musical play based on the life and work of poet Sylvia Plath, The Belfry. It examines the final weeks of Plath's tragic life, touching on her reliance on the occult for inspiration.