First came a poem on the scandal of British MPs' expenses.

Next was a tribute to the men who fought in World War One, after the deaths of the last two British soldiers to live through the conflict.

Now, poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy has penned a poem with the perhaps unusual inspiration of David Beckham's ankle injury.

Triumph and tragedy

The work is entitled Achilles and mixes references to the ancient battlefield hero with allusions to battles on the football field and to Beckham himself.

The cross-over was very apparent to a woman who admits to being a big fan of the game.

ACHILLES BY CAROLN ANN DUFFY
Myth's river- where his mother dipped him, fished him, a slippery golden boy flowed on, his name on its lips.

Without him, it was prophesised, they would not take Troy.

Women hid him, concealed him in girls' sarongs; days of sweetmeats, spices, silver songs...

But when Odysseus came, with an athlete's build, a sword and a shield, he followed him to the battlefield, the crowd's roar,

And it was sport, not war, his charmed foot on the ball...

But then his heel, his heel, his heel...

"He (Beckham) is almost a mythical figure himself, in popular culture," the poet told Radio 4's The World At One.

"People, like Beckham, in their public lives are stories the rest of us follow.

"It's fascinating that the injury takes it name from Achilles... The whole point of Greek myths is the combination of triumph and tragedy that we follow in them," she added.

According to ancient Greek mythology, Achilles was the greatest warrior in the Trojan war.

The myth held that he was made invulnerable by being dipped in the waters of the River Styx.

But, because he was held by the ankle, his heel remained unprotected and became his only weakness.

This is where the notion of "having an Achilles heel" comes from.

'Moving moment'

The impact of Beckham's injury, which has ruled the former England captain out of this summer's World Cup, moved Duffy greatly.

"In many ways he's very human, and the interesting thing about taking ordinary people with a particular talent and making them into heroes is when they are seen at their most human," she said.

"The most tragic image was him being unable to walk and crying on the side of the pitch.

"You just thought how all the money in the world and private planes can't sort this. It was a very moving moment."

The 34-year-old footballer has since been treated by a Finnish ankle specialist and is expected to take at least six months to recover from the injury.

"I'm a lot more likely to watch football than he is to read poetry"

This is not the first time Beckham, well-known for appearing in glossy fashion magazines, has crossed the divide into the arts.

An hour-long video of the former England captain, which simply showed him sleeping, was a star attraction at the National Portrait Gallery in 2004.

So far there has been no indication of what he makes of the poem - and the poet laureate admits that she is not expecting to hear from him.

"I'm a lot more likely to watch football than he is to read poetry!" she told Radio 4.</p

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Fantasy film Alice In Wonderland remains top of the UK and Ireland box office for the second week in a row.

Tim Burton's 3D movie, a twist on the original Lewis Carroll tale, has now taken a total of £22.7m in the UK.

Martin Scorcese's psychological thriller Shutter Island debuted at number two, followed by Green Zone - another new release - in third place.

James Cameron's Avatar dropped two places to number four, while Hachi: A Dog's Tale debuted in fifth place.

The movie, about a college professor (Richard Gere) who forms a relationship with an abandoned dog, had previously been denied a cinematic release in the US.

Thriller Shutter Island sees director Martin Scorsese and actor Leonardo DiCaprio team up once again.

UK AND IRELAND BOX OFFICE

• 1. Alice In Wonderland - £7.3m
• 2. Shutter Island - £2.2m -
• 3. Green Zone - £2m
• 4. Avatar - £638,599
• 5. Hachi: A Dog's Tale - £442,753

The duo have made several successful movies before, including The Departed and The Aviator.

Matt Damon's Green Zone, based on the book Imperial Life in the Emerald City - an expose of America's tribulations in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein - took just over £2m in its first weekend.

Avatar, which has now spent 13 weeks in the top 10, has a total UK box office haul of £89.9m.

Swedish drama The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo entered the chart at six, followed by The Lovely Bones at seven.

The Crazies fell five places to number eight, with Disney's Princess And The Frog in ninth place and fantasy adventure movie Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief rounded off the top 10.</p

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A collection of previously unseen letters written by the famously reclusive Catcher in the Rye author JD Salinger, who died in January, has gone on show at a New York museum.

Out of respect for the author's desire for privacy, the Morgan Museum & Library has kept the letters under lock and key since it acquired them in 1998.

But now, following Salinger's death, aged 91, the museum is making the manuscripts public, and shedding light on one of the 20th Century's most elusive authors.

"The letters don't detract in any way from the image people have of Salinger, they enhance and burnish it," says Declan Kiely, the curator of the exhibition.

"They show that he wasn't this weirdo, reclusive, bizarre man that many people have come to think of him as."

Written between 1951 and 1993, the letters are full of acerbic wit, insight, playfulness, self-deprecating humour and a nostalgic yearning for simpler times.

" Almost everybody I've ever known lets me know... how unhealthily, how selfishly, how unproductively I'm living my life, going years without publishing, not meeting anybody"

They provide a revealing insight into the thoughts, interests and daily habits of the New York-born author.

The recipient of the letters, which were mostly written on a typewriter and signed "Jerry" in Salinger's own hand, was E Michael Mitchell.

A friend and former neighbour, Mitchell designed the book jacket for Salinger's best-selling novel, The Catcher in the Rye.

In a voice which could be that of The Catcher in the Rye's central character, disaffected teenager Holden Caulfield, Salinger variously addresses Mitchell as "buddyroo", "old orange" and "old toot".

Avid writer

The publication in 1951 of his seminal coming-of-age novel brought Salinger fame and the adoration of fans. It has sold 65 million copies worldwide.

Salinger loathed the attention and soon after its publication he became a recluse.

Until now, little has been known about Salinger's life during his lengthy self-imposed seclusion. The letters reveal that, though he stopped publishing in 1965, he continued to work steadily.

He reports that he would sit down at his desk at 6am each day to write, not stopping until noon.

In a letter dated 16 October 1966, Salinger writes, "I have 10, 12 years' work piled around... I have two particular scripts - books, really - that I've been hoarding and picking at for years... I don't know when I'll feel moved to take any action with them."

The words he speaks of were never published.

Now scholars, publishers and fans are eagerly waiting to see whether any new Salinger works will appear.

The letters are peppered with references to politics and figures from popular culture, including John Wayne, Eddie Murphy and Nancy Reagan.

"They show he was fully engaged with the world even after he withdrew from it," says Kiely.

'Old goat'

The author describes his growing disillusionment with the world and his anger at the intrusions of the media, fans and would-be biographers.

Salinger writes, "almost everybody I've ever known lets me know... how unhealthily, how selfishly, how unproductively I'm living my life, going years without publishing, not meeting anybody".

Kiley says the letters never "reveal his reasons for not publishing but it seems to be largely self-doubt".

In one letter, the author describes having "so many middle-aged beliefs and burdensome doubts at work in the mind," he notes.

Salinger was married three times and had two children. In a letter written in 1985, when he was 66, he writes, "Old goat that I am, I still occasionally propose marriage to anybody who passes by my window."

The dark tone of the later letters is in stark contrast to his earlier missives in which Salinger describes riding on the New York subway, visiting the Natural History Museum, eating Chinese food and going to a party at the London home of Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh.

Overall, says Kiely, the letters illuminate "a much more attractive, fully human side of Salinger".

"You come away with the impression that he was a very good friend and a devoted father."

JD Salinger's letters are on display at the Morgan Museum & Library in New York, in two phases, from 16 March until 9 May.</p

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Former EastEnders actress and Strictly Come dancing star Natalie Cassidy has announced she is pregnant with her first child.

The actress, who played Sonia Fowler in the BBC One soap, is expecting with boyfriend Adam Cottrell.

Cassidy, 26, told OK! magazine that their nine month relationship had been a "whirlwind romance".

The star revealed she suffers from polycystic ovaries and had been concerned she could not conceive.

The condition, which typically means small harmless cysts form around the ovaries, can make conceiving difficult.

"I wanted children so much, it was a worry. I came off my contraception in November but I never thought I'd get pregnant that quickly," she said - adding she found out about the pregnancy in December.

The actress met Mr Cottrell, 30, at the Isle Of Wight music festival last year.

"We haven't really gone public with our relationship, so I guess this will all seem a bit sudden to some people. But it was a whirlwind romance for us too, I guess," she said.

"But we feel like we've known each other for ever." </p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.