Poet’s way with words wins her a voice on the worldwide stage

And although Amanda Baker knows she has not won top prize – with the winner to be formally announced later this month – she’s still bowled over by the honour of making it on to the shortlist.

The Bridport Poetry Prize is a heavyweight event in the poetry and creative world and this year attracted more than 8,000 entries from the UK and 80 other countries.

The poet and author lived in Hurley Close, near Leamington town centre, where her mum Joy Baker still lives, and went to Lillington and Brookhurst primary schools.

She left the family home in 1986 when she moved to study English literature at the University of Northumbria, Newcastle, and now lives in Northumberland. But she still finds time to visit her family in the area and has performed at the Leamington Peace Festival.

She won her first prize for writing in a competition at the old Leamington library in 1970.

She said: “I’ll never forget it. The competition was to do with Beatrix Potter. I remember getting a big rosette which weighed down the piece of paper I’d written my poem on. I remember it very vividly in my mind.”

The poem which landed the 47-year-old mother-of-three on the shortlist is called Reduced Possibilities, a piece of less than 30 words about the death of her father Derrick in 2007 and the enduring nature of grief.

She said: “I wrote the poem quite recently. It’s about the persistence of grief. About the moment when you realise that grief is what you have now instead of the person.

“I am a serious poet but more for my private feelings. I’ve never entered a poetry competition before and I know this is a big one for serious poets.

On the performance circuit her repertoire of comedy poetry includes rhyme, blank and rap verse covering contemporary social issues, politics, the media and advertising.

Amanda also took her comedy poetry show Random Ramblings to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2010 and performed at the fringe again this year.

The author of two adult books is off the comedy circuit at the moment while she finishes the last in a trilogy of children’s books but hopes to be back treading the boards next year.

People who visit her website www.amandabaker.me can get a free download of a fantasy story in verse for school-age children read by the author.