A LOCAL writer-in-residence at a North Devon arts festival has been presented with an antique mug as a thank-you gift.

Colin Shaddick, a writer, poet and musician from Barnstaple, was given the mug by the Appledore Book Festival Committee. Colin was the first ever writer-in-residence at the festival and he wrote a lively blog on the

Journal

website throughout the experience. The mug is inscribed with name of "John Mytton", a 19th century eccentric who once rode a bear into his drawing-room in full hunting costume.

It was an appropriate gift for Colin who took bronze at the Greatest British Eccentric of the Year 2009 awards in April.