News at Eleven: "Nobody threw anything. I don't remember hearing

any doors slam. My family are from an amateur dramatics background--they're all about putting on shows and plays and entertaining within the local community. Maybe to a certain extent I was interested in living up to some of those expectations." Poetry passed the test. As did [Simon] Armitage's embrace of it as a livelihood, after the geography graduate with an MA in social work and a thoroughly responsible job working with offenders morphed into a freelance bard for hire.

from The Independent: Simon Armitage: 'If everyone was writing poetry, I don't think I would be'
then The Wall Street Journal: Walking England, With Poetry on the Mind
then BBC News: Poet Simon Armitage 'the modern troubadour'

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