The Poet Laureate Has Gone to His Shed

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Poet Laureate Simon Armitage talks to guests about life, language and music in his shed.

Poet Laureate Simon Armitage is a former probation officer, DJ and poet celebrated for his witty and profound take on modern life. He writes in the shed in his garden, and in this podcast he invites guests to join him to talk about poetry, creativity, music, art, sheds, sherry and the countryside.

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The Poet Laureate Has Gone to His Shed: Kate Tempest

Kate Tempest

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Kate Tempest, poet, musician, novelist, playwright and more talks to Simon Armitage.

Kate Tempest, poet, musician, novelist, playwright and more talks to Simon Armitage about being creative in all these areas.

As someone who has been successful in many different genres, when Kate Tempest has an idea, how does she decide what it will be? In Simon Armitage's wooden writing shed in the garden, surrounded on all sides by the Pennine Hills and the Pennine weather, their conversation ranges from moving to rural France after growing up in south London, her time at the Brit School and her discovery of rapping to writing poetry. They discuss using the tongue as a weapon and the power of words, and Kate reads from Simon's reworking of the comic medieval poem The Owl and the Nightingale. 

If the poets of the past sat in their garrets dipping their quills in ink and waiting for inspiration to strike, our current Poet Laureate Simon Armitage has a more mundane and domestic arrangement, scratching away at a poem in the shed. Any distraction is welcome, even encouraged, to talk about poetry, music, art, sheds, sherry, owls, nightingales and to throw light on some of the poem's internal themes .

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The Poet Laureate Has Gone to His Shed

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