The Toll is the second collection of poetry from Luke Wright. It follows the 2013 book Mondeo Man and it is published by Penned in the Margins. Most events at the Edinburgh International Book Festival follow the traditional format of a book reading and then an in-depth discussion with the author. This afternoon Luke Wright is doing something different and presenting The Toll as a poetry gig.

Luke is introduced to the stage by Becky Fincham. Becky co-programmes the Babble On spoken word strand of the festival. Becky mentions that she first heard Luke reading his poetry on BBC Radio 4 and that his work stood out for various reasons. These reasons are all on show at this event. Essex Lion is a comedic poem that takes influence from news reports that occurred several years ago where a lion was allegedly seen roaming the hills of rural Essex. Luke reimagines the situation in verse and creates a bizarre League of Gentleman style village, where the inhabitants are dumbfounded and confident in the fact that they have seen a lion. It is a comedic and full throttle reading where the audience has to keep up with the strange goings on in this hilarious and farciful poem.

A highlight in the event is the touching poem David at 68. Here the pace is turned down a few notches, but the passion in the delivery and the words is still there. The penultimate poem is called The Toll and centres around a character called Tracy. It is one of the more tranquil and personal poems in the collection. To perform this piece the poet sits down to emphasise the intimate emotional content (or he could be knackered due to being onstage for almost an hour) and proves that The Toll is a poetry collection with heart, comedy and class. There are many more events as part of the Babble On strand at the Edinburgh International Book Festival including a conversation with the legendary The Last Poets on Wednesday 23 August.