FORMER Wimbledon poet in residence Matt Harvey will serve up some volleys of verse tomorrow.

The south Devon writer, poet, radio presenter and cabaret performer heads west to the Tamar Valley.

At the Old Chapel, Calstock, you can expect comic and touching wordplay, and a little of the unexpected – your own input.

"The audience reaction costs of me handing out tiny pieces of paper – very tiny pieces of paper – during the interval," he says.

"I ask them to write one line of a poem and then ask a volunteer to Sellotape them together. Amazingly it always seems to work."

Alternative ways of doing and off-beat ways of saying and seeing are what Harvey does.

He is the host of BBC Radio 4's comedy-infused, musically enhanced interactive poetry cabaret Wondermentalist and has a set of joyously touching books to his name. There is a whiff of the Spike Milligans about some of his verse, although Harvey's output is rather more grounded.

His work in print includes The Hole In The Sum Of My Parts, Where Earwigs Dare and a book for children, Shopping with Dad.

His fabulous stand-up cum performance poet routine has taken him from home town Totnes to acclaim at the Edinburgh Festival and that Wimbledon job as the championships first poet-in-residence in 2010.

Lately he has been writing a pair of song cycles, one for a music festival in Orkney, the other a Cultural Olympiad contribution.

Harvey is also recording another series of Wondermentalist.

His South West gigs include the Calstock date plus others aided by Villages in Action, such as at Lifton on Thursday next week.

"And there's been the odd commission that I get," he adds. "I've just written a poem for the Energy Ombudsman. It's from the viewpoint of a dissatisfied customer, an anti-Valentine, a rejection love letter."

There is no need to bring a pen – Harvey hands them out – but you might want to leave the under-11s at home (with a babysitter, naturally).

His show is most suitable for "wordy secondary age children and above", he says.

Not that it's unsuitable in the 'adult content' sense. "I think it would be a bit boring for primary age children to listen to this bloke chuntering on, every so often hopefully getting a laugh, and then for children to be thinking, 'what's funny about that?'."

The chuntering starts at 8pm. Tickets are available from Calstock Arts on 01822 833183 or through mail@calstockarts.org.