Rochdale Literature and Ideas Festival: Simon Armitage

Simon Armitage gives readings of pieces of his work as well as talking about different aspects of his work

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Author Simon Armitage gave readings of pieces of his work as well as talking about different aspects of his work to a sold out crowd this afternoon (Friday 25 October) at the Literature and Ideas Festival.

His show, Beyond the Margins: Readings from Simon Armitage, took the audience on a journey of his work over the years.

Simon, who used to work in Rochdale as a probation officer, said: "You are always told to use your imagination and I don’t think I have a particularly good imagination. I tend to use information. I often say that I am a good mimic. I am good a mimicking the work of others."

The audience were treated to extracts of poems written by Simon, including a reading of a poem he wrote about the terror attacks of 11 September. When speaking about this poem, he said: "This poem is now on the GCSE anthology so it has become a studied poem."

Simon also showed clips of documentaries that he wrote poetry for. Xanadu, which was made twenty years ago, was a documentary film about the Ashfield Valley Estate in Rochdale. Simon described the film as "experimental at that time."

When talking about poetry and television being used together, Simon said: "You need to use them sparsely and dramatically."

Another film that Simon spoke about was Saturday Night. A film that followed people on night out in Leeds and looked at what was in their mind on a Saturday night. For this film, Simon did all of the writing after the film had been completed. This was a process that Simon adapted for his work on documentaries. He said: "I didnt meet any of the people in the documentary. They sent me what they saw as the completed film and I wrote the poetry to go with it."

Felton Sings was a documentary film that Simon wrote song lyrics for rather than standard poems. He described this film as his "high point of working with century films." Again, Simon didn’t meet anyone involved with the documentary. He did this so he could stay positive and detached from the people in Felton prison.

Simon has also been involved in music and made an album with a band.

The audience included a mixture of fans of Simon and GCSE students studying his poetry. When asked by the audience about his work, Simon added: "It has always been my ambition to write poetry and the more people that read it, the more I can write." 

www.rochdaleliteraturefestival.co.uk