PAPERS and objects belonging to the renowned blind and deaf Cornish poet Jack Clemo will be on show at a special event in the Westcountry on Saturday, November 9.

The free event at the University of Exeter is being held as part of the national Festival of Social Science and will showcase the life and work of the poet.

The artefacts and original documents on display will tell the story of his personal and writing life.

Born in 1916, Jack Clemo lived most of his life in Nanpean in the Clay Country near St Austell.

His poetry focused on the clayscape and the lives of those who lived within it.

During his lifetime, the poet, who died in 1992, was invited to become a bard of the Cornish Gorsedd, taking the name of Prydyth an Pry, which translated as poet of the clay.

Visitors to the Exeter event will be able to hear about the work of the experts at the university’s special collections and digital humanities departments.

Digitisation can be used to preserve precious links to the past but it isn’t always the best solution. Deciding how and what to digitise is a complex task, and there are ethical and practical challenges and benefits.

Those who attend the event, which will be held in the digital humanities lab, will be asked to consider how digitisation can help people access Jack Clemo’s work.

Organiser Sarah-Jayne Ainsworth said: “Digitisation isn’t always the answer when space is short in physical archives. It’s not just a case of taking a picture. We also have to consider what you lose and the different emotional response when you digitise something – the feel and smell of a document or artefact.

“These are dilemmas people will be having in their own lives as they work out how to store photographs and letters.”

The special collections department is home to collections from writers associated with the Westcountry, including Daphne du Maurier, with her strong links to the Fowey area, Agatha Christie and William Golding.

The event will be held from 10.30am to 12.30 pm. Book free tickets at festivalofsocialscience.com/events/making-the-analogue-digital