As would have been expected from a pairing of two such excellent wordsmiths, it was a lyrical and thought provoking evening with poet and author Jackie Kay in conversation with Brighton Festival’s guest director Ali Smith.

The audience was privy to a conversation between close friends, one that had started before the event and which was destined to continue way after, which made it feel like a journey.

Jackie began by reading a poem that is as yet unpublished in one of her collections, Michael McGahey, and the trend continued for favouring newer words over the old.

These included a touching song she wrote for her elderly parents - to be performed soon at London's Southbank, and a poem written for and about her friend Ali Smith.

The tone was informal, and the audience invited to pose questions, an interactivity which took the evening down some interesting paths, and dispelled any notion of a rigid script.

She waxed lyrical on Scottishness, politics, friendship, her love of the short story, her second novel (in progress), and dilemmas that come with writing a memoir.

Jackie came across multi-talented and multi-faceted, leaving the appetite whetted for more of her poetry and prose.

FOUR STARS