It was undoubtedly a pleasure to see the Royal Festival Hall – capacity, 2,500 – practically full for the T.S. Eliot Prize reading on Sunday; somehow we poetry readers are always surprised to find there are 2,000+ others like us out there. It’s a varied audience, too: aged from 22 to 92, I’d say (I was told about the 92-year-old), and from many different language backgrounds.

It's the last day of our online advent calendar. Scotland's national poet Liz Lochhead wrote a specially commissioned poem for the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree lighting up ceremony on Thursday 4 December, 2014. Liz popped into the Library to record these seasonal words and you can hear them by opening the last door of our advent calendar.

It's Day Eleven of the Scottish Poetry Library's advent calendar. We shall be sharing a treat every day between today and the 19th of December, the last day of our campaign. We're hoping to raise £20,000 towards paying for essential building work at the SPL. Open today's door to find a clip from the recording we made of the launch night of the anthology Be the First to Like This, featuring the cream of Scotland-based poets.

It's Day Ten of the Scottish Poetry Library's advent calendar. Find out what poetry is on TV and radio over the Christmas period, and if you like it, consider donating to our renovation fund.