New Poet Laureate: Simon Armitage

 
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Over the weekend you may have heard the news that Simon Armitage - a longtime friend and supporter of the Ted Hughes Society - was appointed to be the Poet Laureate. Professor Terry Gifford, the Chair of the Society, writes:

The Ted Hughes Society offers congratulations to the new Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage, whose championing of the work of Hughes over the years has supported both ordinary, and especially young, readers of Hughes, together with Hughes scholarship. Of course this appointment is a recognition of Simon's own poetry and his work on behalf of poetry. As he writes in 'Thank You for Waiting': 'We now extend our invitation to Exclusive, Superior, Privilege and Excelsior members' right down to 'Sludge, Clinker, Splinter and Soot: / all you people are now free to board'. We will and are looking forward to the ride.

Terry Gifford

Chair, Ted Hughes Society

In this video, Simon talks about some of his hopes for his new position as Laureate, starting with an acknowledgement of the role Ted Hughes played in ‘waking up’ a sleepy student to the reality that ‘poetry was going to be my thing’: