Cambridge Pub Poetry Group returned to the city where it was formed nearly 20 years ago for a special autumn reading on Tuesday night. Founder member and organiser Colin Shaw said: "It was a highly successful, fun evening, though there were some sombre poems. We had 13 poets there, including two new ones."

The group started in the well-known Cambridge Blue pub much frequented by students. It then moved on to another pub and later a cafe venue. "At the latter, we started reading monthly rather than bi-annually, which was a bit of a chore, as our emphasis is always on reading new works," Colin added. "I'm not sure whose idea it was to do pub readings, but it seemed to tick all the boxes - beer and a ready audience."

For the past decade the poets have been reading twice yearly at the Queen's Head pub in the village of Newton, just outside Cambridge, near where some of the group live. These included the late Ron Westbrook, a well-published Poetry Society member. Tuesday night's reading, with a general Christmas theme, was in the library room of the popular Earl of Beaconsfield pub, pictured. Among the 13 poets reading were three who are also artists: Marina Yedigaroff, who makes her living by painting, Natania Goldrich, who performed her poem with a veil and candles, watercolourist Mike Roe, plus actress Anna Lindup.

A key figure was Norfolk poet and publisher William Alderson, a former BBC TV editor, and runner-up in this year's Fen Poet Laureate competition. As well as publishing books, including the group's own 2013 Cloudburst2 collection, he specialises in the old art of hand printing. Charity worker Gordon Bell, a guitarist, set one of Colin Shaw's poems to music and sang it in true performance style.

Cloudburst2, together with Colin Shaw's second poetry collection, published four years ago, was on sale at the event. William's wife, poet, playwright and actress Jackie Mulhallen, a Shelley expert, had her own recently published political biography of the poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Poet and Revolutionary (Pluto Press), on sale.

Colin, an Anglican lay minister for 20 years, is taking a sabbatical from church duties to finish his third collection. He and his wife, Stephanie, both ex-Guardian journalists, are thinking of editing a third group collection in 2016, after hearing what Colin described as the "extremely high calibre" of new verse at Tuesday's reading.