Spectator competition: Nando’s with Chaucer (plus: what became of Belloc’s Lord Lundy?)

The title of a poem by Anthony Brode, ‘Breakfast with Gerard Manley Hopkins’, prompted me to invite verse submissions describing a meal with a well-known poet. Sylvia Fairley tucked, somewhat reluctantly, into albatross with Coleridge, D.A. Prince shared cocoa with Wendy Cope and Rob Stuart enjoyed a curry with Dante. Honourable mentions go to John M. Fotheringham, who wouldn’t recommend taking up an invitation to tea from Robert Burns; and to Brian Allgar for oysters with Lewis Carroll. Well done, all: it was a top-notch entry. The winners take £25. Frank McDonald nabs £30.

Frank McDonald/Elizabeth Barrett Browning ‘How do you like your eggs?’ the waiter says And with a smile Elizabeth replies: ‘How do I like them? Let me count the ways: I like them scrambled, sometimes served with fries; Or smiling at me like a golden sun Inviting me to spill delicious yolk; Or boiled hard as when in Easter fun I used to roll them, like religious folk.