Simon Armitage facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Simon Armitage CBE, FRSL
Armitage in September 2019
Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom
Incumbent
Assumed office 10 May 2019
Monarch	Elizabeth II Charles III
Preceded by	Carol Ann Duffy
Personal details
Born	Simon Robert Armitage (1963-05-26) 26 May 1963 (age 62) Huddersfield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
Spouses	Alison Tootell (div.) Sue Roberts
Children	1
Residences	Holme Valley, West Yorkshire, England
Education	Colne Valley High School
Alma mater	Portsmouth Polytechnic University of Manchester
Occupation	Poet, playwright, novelist, singer

Simon Armitage (born 26 May 1963) is a famous English poet, writer, and musician. He was chosen as the Poet Laureate on 10 May 2019. This is a special role for a poet who writes poems for important national events. He is also a professor of poetry at the University of Leeds.

Simon Armitage has written more than 20 books of poetry. His first collection was called Zoom! in 1989. Many of his poems are about his home area in West Yorkshire. These are gathered in a book called Magnetic Field: The Marsden Poems. He has also translated old poems like the Odyssey and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Besides poetry, he has written travel books and edited poetry collections. He has also been part of many TV and radio shows.

Simon Armitage's Early Life and School

Simon Armitage was born in Huddersfield, England. He grew up in a village called Marsden. His family still lives there. His father, Peter, was a firefighter and probation officer. He was also known for writing plays and pantomimes for a local group.

Simon wrote his very first poem when he was 10 years old. It was for a school assignment. He went to Colne Valley High School. Later, he studied geography at Portsmouth Polytechnic. He also studied at the University of Manchester. His master's degree looked at how TV violence affects young people.

After finishing university, he trained to be a probation officer. This was like his father's job. He started writing poetry more seriously around this time. He worked as a probation officer until 1994.

Simon Armitage's Career Journey

Armitage in 2009

Simon Armitage has taught creative writing at different universities. These include the University of Leeds and the University of Iowa. From 2009 to 2012, he was an Artist in Residence in London. In 2011, he became a Professor of Poetry at the University of Sheffield. In 2017, he became the first Professor of Poetry at the University of Leeds.

In 2019, he was chosen as the Poet Laureate. He will hold this role for ten years. He took over from Carol Ann Duffy. He also helps the National Poetry Centre. This group plans to open a new poetry home in Leeds.

Simon Armitage's Writing Style

Armitage in 2015

Simon Armitage's first full poetry book, Zoom!, came out in 1989. He has written other poetry books like Book of Matches (1993). He has also written two novels. These are Little Green Man (2001) and The White Stuff (2004).

His poems are known for their clever Yorkshire humor. They also have a clear, realistic style. Many of his poems are studied in British GCSE English Literature classes. He translated Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in 2007. This translation is used in a well-known English literature textbook. He also narrated a BBC show about the poem.

For the Stanza Stones Trail, Simon wrote six new poems. These poems were carved into stones along a 47-mile path. A book was made about this journey. In 2020, he wrote "Something clicked" about the COVID-19 lockdown. In 2023, he wrote a poem for Brimham Rocks in North Yorkshire. This poem is part of a public artwork.

Simon Armitage's Poems as Poet Laureate

As Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage has written many poems for special occasions. His first poem in this role was "Conquistadors." It celebrated the 1969 Moon landing in 2019. He wrote "Finishing it" for the Institute of Cancer Research. A tiny version of this poem was carved onto a treatment tablet.

He wrote "All Right" for a train company's mental health campaign. He also wrote "Fugitives" to celebrate 70 years of National Parks. For the naming of a new research ship, he wrote "Ark." He wrote "Ode to a Clothes Peg" to celebrate the 200th anniversary of John Keats' famous odes.

In 2020, he wrote "Astronomy for Beginners" for the Royal Astronomical Society. His poem "Lockdown" was about the coronavirus pandemic. It mentioned the village of Eyam, which self-isolated long ago. He wrote "Still Life" and "The Omnipresent" about the lockdown too. He also wrote lyrics for the Huddersfield Choral Society.

In 2020, he read "The Bed" at Westminster Abbey. This was for the 100th anniversary of the burial of The Unknown Warrior. In 2021, he wrote " 'I speak as someone ...' " for John Keats' 200th death anniversary. He wrote "Cocoon" to mark the easing of lockdown. "The Patriarchs – An Elegy" was written for the death of Prince Philip.

He wrote "70 notices" to celebrate 70 years of the Peak District National Park. "Futurama" was his poem for the Cop26 climate conference. Simon Armitage gives his Poet Laureate salary to create the Laurel Prize. This prize is for poetry about nature and the environment.

In 2022, he wrote "Resistance" about the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. He read "Only Human" at York Minster to remember lives lost during the pandemic. For the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II, he wrote "Queenhood". He wrote "Floral Tribute" for the death of Elizabeth II. This poem spelled out "Elizabeth" with its first letters.

For the 100th birthday of the BBC, he wrote "Transmission Report." He also wrote "The Making of the Flying Scotsman" for the famous train's 100th birthday. In 2023, he released "Plum Tree Among the Skyscrapers." This is part of a series for the National Trust. For the coronation of Charles III and Camilla, he wrote "An Unexpected Guest." In July 2023, he wrote poems about his visit to Spitsbergen in the Arctic.

The Poet Laureate's Library Tour

In 2019, Simon Armitage announced a special tour. Each spring for ten years, he would visit five to seven libraries. He would read his poems and sometimes bring a guest poet. The libraries are chosen in alphabetical order. So, in 2020, he planned to visit places starting with "A" or "B."

The tour was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The first tour happened in 2021. He read online from libraries like Ashby-de-la-Zouch and the British Library.

The 2022 tour visited libraries starting with C, D, and Welsh Ch and DD. He read at places like Chadderton and Carmarthen. The 2023 tour visited libraries with E, F, and G initials. He launched the tour at Exeter library with his band. He also read at Glastonbury and Eastbourne libraries.

The 2024 tour visited libraries starting with H to K. He launched it at Harlesden library. He also visited HM Prison East Sutton Park and Haverfordwest library. He read at The Hive, Worcester and Kirkcudbright library. The last event was at Haltwhistle library.

Simon Armitage and Performing Arts

Simon Armitage has written five plays for the stage. One is Mister Heracles, based on an old Greek play. His play The Last Days of Troy was first shown in 2014. He also wrote Eclipse, a play inspired by a real disappearance.

He wrote the words for an opera called The Assassin Tree. This opera was first shown in 2006. In 2010, Simon walked the 264-mile Pennine Way. He gave poetry readings along the way. He wrote a book about this journey called Walking Home.

In 2007, he released an album with musician Craig Smith. Their band was called The Scaremongers. In 2016, he wrote poems for a project about World War I. These poems were a response to old battlefield photos.

In 2019, he created an epic poem and film called The Brink. It explored British identity after Brexit. In 2020, he started a podcast called The Poet Laureate Has Gone to His Shed. He talks to guests in his garden shed. He also worked on a film called Where Did The World Go? about the pandemic. In 2022, he presented a radio series about poet Philip Larkin.

Simon Armitage's Personal Life

Simon Armitage lives in the Holme Valley, West Yorkshire. This is near his family home in Marsden. He is married to Sue Roberts, a radio producer. They have a daughter named Emmeline, born in 2000. Emmeline also loves poetry and is a singer.

He supports his local football team, Huddersfield Town. He mentions them in his book All Points North. He also enjoys birdwatching.

Simon Armitage's Music

Simon Armitage is the first Poet Laureate who is also a disc jockey. He loves music, especially the band The Smiths. He formed a band called The Scaremongers with his friend Craig Smith. Their album, Born in a Barn, came out in 2010.

He is also the lead singer of LYR (Land Yacht Regatta). This band includes Richard Walters and Patrick J Pearson. They released their first album, Call in the Crash Team, in 2020.

In May 2020, Simon was a guest on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. He chose David Bowie's "Moonage Daydream" as one of his songs. His chosen book was the Oxford English Dictionary. His luxury item was a tennis ball.

Awards and Special Recognitions

Simon Armitage has received many awards for his writing.

Awards

• 1988 Eric Gregory Award
• 1989 Zoom! was chosen as a Poetry Book Society Choice
• 1992 Forward Poetry Prize for Kid
• 1993 Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year
• 1994 Lannan Award
• 1995 Forward Poetry Prize for The Dead Sea Poems
• 1998 Yorkshire Post Book of the Year for All Points North
• 2003 BAFTA winner
• 2003 Ivor Novello Award for song-writing
• 2004 Fellow of Royal Society for Literature
• 2005 Spoken Word Award (Gold) for The Odyssey
• 2006 Royal Television Society Documentary Award for Out of the Blue
• 2008 The Not Dead (C4, Century Films) Mental Health in the Media Documentary Film Winner
• 2010 Seeing Stars was chosen as a Poetry Book Society Choice
• 2010 Keats-Shelley Prize for Poetry
• 2010 Appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the Queen's Birthday Honours List, for services to literature
• 2012 The Death of King Arthur was chosen as a Poetry Book Society Choice
• 2012 Hay Festival Medal for Poetry
• 2012 T. S. Eliot Prize, shortlist, The Death of King Arthur
• 2015 Oxford professor of poetry (4-year appointment)
• 2017 PEN America Poetry in Translation Prize for Pearl: A New Verse Translation
• 2018 Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry "for his body of work"
• 2019 Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, appointed for 10 years

Honorary Degrees

Simon Armitage has also received special degrees from universities. These are called honorary degrees.

• 1996 Doctor of Letters, University of Portsmouth
• 1996 Honorary Doctorate, University of Huddersfield
• 2009 Honorary Doctorate, Sheffield Hallam University
• 2011 Doctor of the University, The Open University
• 2015 Honorary Doctor of Letters, University of Leeds

Simon Armitage's Published Works

Poetry Collections

• Zoom! (1989)
• Kid (1992)
• Xanadu (1992)
• Book of Matches (1993)
• The Dead Sea Poems (1995)
• CloudCuckooLand (1997)
• Killing Time (1999)
• Selected Poems (2001, includes poems from 6 earlier books)
• The Universal Home Doctor (2002)
• Travelling Songs (2002)
• The Shout: Selected Poems (2005)
• Tyrannosaurus Rex Versus The Corduroy Kid (2006)
• The Not Dead (2008)
• Out of the Blue (2008)
• Seeing Stars (2010)
• Stanza Stones (2013)
• Paper Aeroplane, Selected Poems 1989–2014 (2014, includes poems from earlier collections)
• Still – A Poetic Response to Photographs of the Somme Battlefield (2016)
• The Unaccompanied (2017)
• Sandettie Light Vessel Automatic (2019)
• Magnetic Field: The Marsden Poems (2020, includes poems from earlier collections)

Translations of Classic Poems

• Homer's Odyssey (2006)
• The Death of King Arthur (2012), a translation of the Alliterative Morte Arthure
• Pearl (2017)
• Sir Gawain and The Green Knight (2018) [2007], new revised translation
• The Owl and the Nightingale (2021)

Pamphlets and Limited Editions

• Human Geography (1986)
• Distance Between Stars (1987)
• The Walking Horses (1988)
• Around Robinson (1991)
• The Anaesthetist (1994)
• Five Eleven Ninety Nine (1995)
• Machinery of Grace: A Tribute to Michael Donaghy (2005), Contributor
• The North Star (2006), Contributor
• The Motorway Service Station as a Destination in its Own Right (2010)
• In Memory of Water – The Stanza Stones poems. (2013)
• Considering the Poppy – (2014)
• Waymarkings – (2016)
• New Cemetery (2017)
• Exit the Known World – (2018)
• Flit – (2018, 40th anniversary edition)
• Hansel and Gretel – (2019)
• Gymnasium – (2019)
• Tract – (2021)
• The Bed – (2021)
• 70 Notices – (2021)
• Queenhood - (2022)
• Tribute: Three Commemorative Poems (2022)
• LX – (2023)
• The Cryosphere (2023)
• Blossomise (2024)

Books Written by Simon Armitage

• Moon Country (with Glyn Maxwell, 1996)
• Eclipse (1997)
• All Points North (1998)
• Mister Heracles After Euripides (2000)
• Little Green Man (2001)
• The White Stuff (2004)
• King Arthur in the East Riding (2005)
• Jerusalem (2005)
• The Twilight Readings (2008)
• Gig: The Life and Times of a Rock-star Fantasist (2008)
• Walking Home: Travels with a Troubadour on the Pennine Way (2012)
• Walking Away: Further Travels with a Troubadour on the South West Coast Path (2015)
• Mansions in the Sky (2017)
• Never Good with Horses: Assembled Lyrics (2023)

Books Edited by Simon Armitage

• Penguin Modern Poets: Book 5 (with Sean O'Brien and Tony Harrison, 1995)
• The Penguin Book of Poetry from Britain and Ireland since 1945 (with Robert Crawford, 1998)
• Short and Sweet: 101 Very Short Poems (1999)
• Ted Hughes Poems: Selected by Simon Armitage (2000)
• The Poetry of Birds (with Tim Dee, 2009)

Selected Television and Radio Works

• Second Draft from Saga Land – six shows for BBC Radio 3 about poets W. H. Auden and Louis MacNeice.
• Eyes of a Demigod – about Victor Grayson for BBC Radio 3.
• The Amherst Myth – about Emily Dickinson, for BBC Radio 4.
• Points of Reference – about the history of navigation, for BBC Radio 4.
• From Salford to Jericho – A verse drama for BBC Radio 4.
• To Bahia and Beyond – Travel features in verse with Glyn Maxwell from Brazil and the Amazon for BBC Radio 3.
• The Bayeux Tapestry – A six-part play, with Geoff Young, for BBC Radio 3.
• Saturday Night (1996) – Century Films/BBC TV
• A Tree Full of Monkeys (2002) – for BBC Radio 3.
• The Odyssey (2004) – A three-part play for BBC Radio 4.
• Writing the City (2005) – for BBC Radio 3.
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (2010) – BBC documentary
• Gods and Monsters — Homer's Odyssey (2010) – BBC documentary
• The Making of King Arthur (2010) – BBC documentary
• The Pendle Witch Child (2011) – BBC documentary about the Pendle Witch Trials
• Black Roses: The Killing of Sophie Lancaster (2011), poems telling the story of Sophie Lancaster's life.
• The Last Days of Troy (2015) – A two-part play for BBC Radio 4.
• The Brink (2018) – about British identity and Europe. For Sky Arts.
• The Poet Laureate Has Gone to His Shed (2020, 2021 and 2023) – BBC Radio 4 series and podcast.
• Poet Laureate in the Arctic (2023) – BBC Radio 4 four-part series.
• My Poetry and Other Animals (2024-2025) - BBC Radio 4 10-part series.

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