Photo: Paul Hudson from United Kingdom / CC BY 2.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
What I admire most about Simon Armitage is his refusal to chase glamour. Here is a Poet Laureate, a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, who keeps returning to the small West Yorkshire town of Marsden for his subject matter. That kind of rootedness is rare and, to me, deeply moving. Over twenty collections, plus novels and plays, prove he is no one-note voice, yet he never loses the plain, unpretentious music of ordinary northern English life. I read him as a writer who proves you do not need exotic material to make lasting art, only honesty and craft.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Simon Armitage
- Name (Japanese)
- サイモン・アーミテージ
- Reading
- さいもん・あーみてーじ
- Born
- May 26, 1963 (age 63)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Gemini / Rabbit
- Origin
- Huddersfield, United Kingdom
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- poet / novelist / literary scholar / art historian / playwright
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- University of Portsmouth
Awards & achievements
- Commander of the Order of the British Empire
- 1988 Eric Gregory Award
- 2010 Keats-Shelley Prize for Poetry
- 2004 Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
- 2013 Cholmondeley Award
- 2011 honorary doctorate
- 2017 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
- Official sitehttp://www.simonarmitage.com
- Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/simonarmitage_official/
- Wikipedia (Japanese)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon%20Armitage
Frequently asked questions
When was Simon Armitage born?
Born May 26, 1963 (age 63).
Where is Simon Armitage from?
Simon Armitage is from Huddersfield, United Kingdom.
What does Simon Armitage do?
Simon Armitage works as poet, novelist, literary scholar, art historian, playwright.
Poet — see all → · Novelist — see all → · More people from United Kingdom →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-20
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.