Simon Armitage

Preserved on a single surviving manuscript dating from around 1400, composed by an anonymous master, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was rediscovered only 200 years ago and published for the first time in 1839. One of the earliest great stories of English literature, after Beowulf, the poem narrates in crystalline verse the strange tale of a green knight on...

When Simon Armitage burst on to the poetry scene in 1989 with his spectacular debut Zoom!, readers were introduced to an exceptional new talent who would reshape the landscape of contemporary poetry in the years to come. Now, Armitage's reputation as one of the nation's most original, most respected and most influential poets seems secure. Paper Aeroplane: Poems 1989-2014 is...

Shortlisted for the Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry In this graceful, elegant translation (Guardian), Poet Laureate Simon Armitage communicates the energy and humour of the Middle English tale with all the cut and thrust of the original. An unnamed narrator overhears a fiery verbal contest between the two eponymous birds, which moves entertainingly from the eloquent and philosophical to the...

Growing up in Marsden among the hills of West Yorkshire, Simon Armitage has always associated his early poetic experiences with the night-time view from his bedroom window, those 'private, moonstruck observations' and the clockwork comings and goings in the village providing rich subject matter for his first poems. Decades on, that window continues to operate as both framework and focal...

In Simon Armitage's work, there has always been a territory he identifies as 'a twilight zone' where poetry and song lyric converge. He has explored it through numerous enterprises - most recently with the 'ambient post-rock' band Land Yacht Regatta. Many of the lyrics collected here were written for LYR. Others are drawn from Armitage's days with the DIY indie...

'The most popular English poet since Larkin.' Sunday Times After more than a decade and following his celebrated adventures in drama, translation, travel writing and prose poetry, Simon Armitage's eleventh collection of poems heralds a return to his trademark contemporary lyricism. The pieces in this multi-textured and moving volume are set against a backdrop of economic recession and social division,...

An anthology of unforgettable poems by, for and about parents

A high-ranking government minister with a colourful past is sent on a diplomatic mission to Istanbul. When his trip ends up in a bar-room brawl, he becomes Europe’s most wanted man overnight. Chased by the authorities, damned by religious leaders, pursued by those looking for vengeance and head-hunted by fanatics, his odyssey begins. Plunged into the ancient past, Odysseus must...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE DEREK WALCOTT PRIZE FOR POETRY 'It is the current Poet Laureate who has done the most to bring medieval poetry to contemporary audiences... in its own eccentric way, The Owl and the Nightingale is every bit as enticing as Gawain... it is arguably the greatest early Middle English poem we have.' - Prospect 'A graceful, elegant translation.'...

Not content with walking the Pennine Way as a modern day troubadour, an experience recounted in his bestseller and prize-winning Walking Home, the restless poet has followed up that journey with a walk of the same distance but through the very opposite terrain and direction far from home. In Walking Away, Simon Armitage swaps the moorland uplands of the north...

Poet Laureate Simon Armitage's version of this entertaining Middle English debate poem brings a fresh perspective to a classic work. The Owl and the Nightingale captures a lively argument between two birds—each representing different poetic and philosophical ideals—engaging readers with their witty exchanges. Armitage's modern rendering provides accessibility and wit, breathing new life into a centuries-old poem while preserving its...

[Armitage] blended his down-to-earth, often flippant demeanor with a brilliantly understated, original and captivating address, which never strayed into pretentiousness or self-importance. -Oxford Culture Review A Vertical Art gathers the expansive and spirited public lectures delivered by the Poet Laureate during his acclaimed four-year tenure as Oxford University Professor of Poetry. Querying the facile and obscure ends of the poetry...

The Alliterative Morte Arthure—the title given to a four-thousand line poem written sometime around 1400—was part of a medieval Arthurian revival which produced such masterpieces as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Sir Thomas Malory's prose Morte D'Arthur. The Death of King Arthur deals in the cut-and-thrust of warfare and politics: the ever-topical matter of Britain's relationship with continental...

This gorgeously illustrated collection of poems illuminates and reimagines the ingenious, fragile dwellings of the living creatures around us. Poet Laureate Simon Armitage was inspired to write these poems by the Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall, an ambitious restoration project where history and mystery combine. The reawakened landscape with its woods, meadows and 'jungle' offers a bustling, fertile realm...