A BIRTHDAY party for a famous York writer united poetry-lovers in the city.

The City of York Auden Society celebrated what would have been W H Auden's 97th birthday on Saturday night.

A lecture on Auden's Modernity by Professor Jacques Berthoud, the recently-retired head of the University of York's English department, was the highlight of the event at the Old Cemetery Chapel in Cemetery Road, York.

The evening also included a large birthday cake and a champagne toast.

Two actors, Seamus O'Neill, who has recently been filming for Coronation Street, and Nigel Forde, director of Riding Lights, read three of Auden's poems.

Marie Johnson and Melanie Jones performed three of his cabaret songs, set to music by Benjamin Britten.

A film of the event, which includes children's messages to the York residents of the future about what life is like in the city in 2004, will be kept in the Yorkshire Film Archives.

Organiser Hugh Bernays said: "We celebrate Auden's birthday every year and we are building up to an even bigger event in 2007 to celebrate the centenary of his birth.

"The centenary will involve lots of York people and their response to poetry."

Auden was born at 54 Bootham, York, on February 21, 1907. He died in 1973.

Updated: 11:23 Monday, February 23, 2004