Top-selling Huddersfield children’s author, potty poet, comedian and broadcaster Gez Walsh is attempting to break another world record tomorrow in aid of the BBC Children in Need appeal.
Last year, he claimed an unofficial world record when he managed to write a book in a single day with the help of the kids at Elland Junior School.
This year he’s attempting something even more ambitious – the world record for the most performances by a poet in schools in one day.
Starting at 8am tomorrow Gez will be attempting to fit in performances in 11 different schools within Kirklees as part of the fundraising efforts of each individual school within the normal school day.
The schools Gez is going to tomorrow are Royds Hall High, Paddock Junior, Moorlands Primary, Moldgreen Junior, St Joseph’s Junior, Dalton Junior, Honley Junior, Helme Primary, Hade Edge Junior, Holmfirth High and Scissett Infants.
He will be accompanied by the newly-appointed Young Poet Laureate for Calderdale, Joel Duncan, 19, who was appointed on National Poetry Day and who is mentored by Gez who is the Adult Poet Laureate for Calderdale.
Using two cars and a squad of helpers, they hope to keep Gez on the move throughout the day whatever happens.
In fact, Gez has had so much interest from local schools in Kirklees wanting to take part, that he has had to lay on an additional schedule of a further seven schools today so if he succeeds in that, he will have done 18 schools in two days by the end of the week. Today’s schools are Fixby Junior, Ashbrow Primary, Harsthead Moor Infants, Purwell Infants in Batley, Netherton Infants and Wooldale Junior and Infants.
Last year with his writing a book in a single day he began writing poems with the kids which were then emailed over to the publishers, The King’s England Press, before being laid out in book form and sent on to John Brailsford print in Rotherham.
Gez then collected the finished copies and drove them back to Elland before the school closed for the day. The school then sold the original batch plus several others and, as the printers printed them at cost price, all the profit from the exercise went to Children in Need.
He said: “I’ve had another great year this year and I am looking to add to my tally of world records, especially in aid of such a good cause. As far as we can tell there is no official world record for the
number of performances on poetry in different schools in a single day so if we are successful we will be claiming it as a world record!”
You can follow Gez’s progress with live updates on Twitter on Thursday and Friday using the hashtag #followgez
