"Memorising poetry helps reading and language skills, and overall confidence. Poetry is the only artform you ingest, said T S Eliot prizewinner Don Paterson at his symposium in Brighton. We want children to discover that poetry can taste just as good as chocolate and can last much longer - for a whole lifetime in fact".

"There is something absolutely primitive, emotional, visceral about poetry which children lock onto extremely quickly and naturally," said Poet Laureate Andrew Motion in a recent talk.

"Memorising poetry improves memory skills generally as well as increasing emotional intelligence and insight. It breeds an internal richness of connection and empathy," says THE SOUTH's artistic director, poet Brendan Cleary.

THE SOUTH's MORE MOUTH DOWN SOUTH campaign also promotes THE SOUTH as a centre of excellence for live performance and active literature. Brighton and Hove is the hub of a creative axis that spans Sussex and the south of England.

“We believe that down south we simply have more and better poets, storytellers, writers and performers,” says John Davies, known to many people as Shedman.

“We're just better at live literature than anywhere else and we challenge the rest of the country to prove us wrong. The new campaign is something all literature promoters in the south can take advantage of whatever their style or audience.

“MORE MOUTH DOWN SOUTH also links with our campaign to give the disadvantaged more say through initiatives like our innovative and highly successful Voice the Voiceless creative writing and video workshops. THE SOUTH has always had a policy offering access for all and with MORE MOUTH DOWN SOUTH we're open wide!

In the valley of its making where executives

Would never want to tamper, flows on south

From ranches of isolation and the busy griefs,

Raw towns that we believe and die in; it survives,

A way of happening, a mouth.”

From In memory of W B Yeats W H Auden