PAULA Byrne, the best-selling biographer of Evelyn Waugh and a recognised expert on Jane Austen, will present the second annual George Sayer Lecture at Malvern College, entitled Poetry, Mental Health and Well-being.

Paula is the founder and chief executive of ReLit: The Bibliotherapy Foundation, which is dedicated to the promotion of literature as a complementary therapy.

Entry to the lecture, on Wednesday, March 6, is free and open to the the general public. Tickets can be reserved online.

Paula Byrne reviews for the Times, and is a judge of the Costa Book Prize. She writes fiction and non-fiction, including, her top ten bestseller, Mad World: Evelyn Waugh and the Secrets of Brideshead, about the Lygon family estate at Madresfield.

George Sayer taught English at Malvern College from 1945 and became head of English in 1949 until his retirement in 1974. He was a most inspirational teacher and very fondly remembered by former pupils.

The aim of the George Sayer Fellowship is to benefit the local community and the pupils at Malvern College and local senior schools by offering an enriched academic insight that honours Sayer’s literary and intellectual legacy.

George Sayer is also known for his association with writers C S Lewis and J R R Tolkien, who he met at Oxford, and who visited him in Malvern often. He would eventually write Lewis’s biography and provided support and encouragement to Tolkien when he struggled to get The Lord of the Rings published.