AMBUSH Artists, an exciting new collective of poets and musicians from across England and featuring Stroud born poet Helen Gregory, are to launch themselves onto a heretofore unsuspecting public at this year's Stroud Fringe.

Fantastical, fun, frivolous, thoughtful and with no respect whatsoever for the laws of alliteration, Ambush Artists are David Johnson, Helen Gregory, Ebele and Lou Bell.

They formed back in the mud of Glastonbury 2004, inspired by the many musicians, gymnasts, comedians and performing artists who wandered through the fields performing in any space they could find.

They wanted to do for poetry what these people were doing for their art forms, flinging it out of the closet, dusting it off and waking new audiences up to the potential of the spoken (and sung) word.

They will be living up to their name at the Fringe, running around the streets of Stroud accosting unsuspecting passers-by with verse, and will also be presenting a schools Poetry Slam between Archway School and Winchcombe School outside the Subscription Rooms on Saturday, September 10 between 3pm and 5pm.

A slam is a knockout competition for poets, a battle of words and wills to win over the audience's hearts and minds, and is one of the best ways of making poetry accessible to people otherwise wary of the art form.

"We're trying to get kids who find poetry daunting to see that poetry doesn't have to just look good on the page," said Helen.

"It can make people laugh, cry, get angry and can be very relevant to life as it is now."

Ambush will be doing workshops in the schools in the preceding days.

"It'll be a little scary doing the workshop in Archway," added Helen, "it's my old school!"