POETRY fans gathered at Blackwell’s Bookshop in Oxford in honour of American poet Allen Ginsberg.

They celebrated the 60th anniversary of the first reading of his iconic poem Howl, a 3,000-word account of the counter-culture movement in the 1950s.

Mr Ginsberg read it for the first time in public in 1955 in San Francisco at the Six Gallery reading, which included four other poets from the Beat generation.

Hannah Chinnery of Blackwell’s said: “We tried to re-enact the performance by reading all of the poems read that evening.

“We approached our customers and asked anyone interested in reading poetry to get in touch. Lots of people did including Daisy Johnson.”

A former employee at Blackwell’s, Ms Johnson has since signed a two-book deal.

Last Tuesday Ms Johnson read poems by Michael McClure, one of the five artists who attended the Six Gallery reading in 1955 along with Mr Ginsberg. The event lasted 45 minutes.