Last night's reading at the Flying Goose featured Andy Croft and WN Herbert. It was a great evening. The two poets had been on a trip to Moscow, specifically to write a series of poems about the Moscow metro. For a personal reasons, I have very fond memories of Moscow, and of the metro there, so it was a promising start. The reading worked because it had a theme, and because both poets are skilled readers; funny and entertaining. Croft's poetry, while I generally approve of the political content, is too obvious most of the time; Herbert's has more depth - he's one of the more interesting mainstream poets. There was a lot of chat between poems, something innovative poets avoid; but last night it worked, as the evening was more a themed entertainment, with anecdotes, history, cultural background and general banter relating to the Moscow underground interweaved with poetry. A couple of pints of cask-conditioned beer at the Hop Pole pub, next door, rounded things off nicely.