{"title":"Simon Armitage","description":"\u003cp\u003eSimon Armitage’s works traverse the landscapes of poetry, travel, and cultural heritage with a distinctive voice that is both modern and timeless. His collections offer a rich blend of reflective verse, narrative storytelling, and reimagined classics, inviting readers into worlds shaped by place, history, and human experience.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFrom adventurous journeys to intimate family moments, Armitage explores the intersections of art and life with wit and depth. Whether through evocative poetry or retellings of ancient tales, his writing is a compelling invitation to see the familiar anew.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"sir-gawain-and-the-green-knight-by-simon-armitage-9780571223282","title":"Sir Gawain and the Green Knight","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePreserved on a single surviving manuscript dating from around 1400, composed by an anonymous master, \u003cem\u003eSir Gawain and the Green Knight\u003c\/em\u003e was rediscovered only 200 years ago and published for the first time in 1839.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOne of the earliest great stories of English literature, after \u003cem\u003eBeowulf\u003c\/em\u003e, the poem narrates in crystalline verse the strange tale of a green knight on a green horse, who rudely interrupts the Round Table festivities one Yuletide, casting a pall of unease over the company and challenging one of their number to a wager. The virtuous Gawain accepts and decapitates the intruder with his own axe.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eGushing blood, the knight reclaims his head, orders Gawain to seek him out a year hence, and departs. Next Yuletide, Gawain dutifully sets forth. His quest for the Green Knight involves a winter journey, a seduction scene in a dream-like castle, a dire challenge answered, and a drama of enigmatic reward disguised as psychic undoing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSimon Armitage's new version is meticulously responsible to the tact and sophistication of the original— but responsible equally to its own powerfully persuasive claims to be read as an original new poem. It is as if, six hundred years apart, two northern poets set out on a journey through the same mesmeric landscapes—acoustic, physical, and metaphorical—in the course of which the Gawain poet has finally found his true and long-awaited translator.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46532770463980,"sku":"9780571223282","price":26.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9908933482391.jpg?v=1749331468"},{"product_id":"the-owl-and-the-nightingale-by-simon-armitage-9780571357307","title":"The Owl and the Nightingale","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSHORTLISTED FOR THE DEREK WALCOTT PRIZE FOR POETRY\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e'It is the current Poet Laureate who has done the most to bring medieval poetry to contemporary audiences... in its own eccentric way, \u003ci\u003eThe Owl and the Nightingale\u003c\/i\u003e is every bit as enticing as \u003ci\u003eGawain\u003c\/i\u003e... it is arguably the greatest early Middle English poem we have.' - \u003ci\u003eProspect\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e'A graceful, elegant translation.' - \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFollowing his acclaimed translations of \u003ci\u003eSir Gawain and the Green Knight\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003ePearl\u003c\/i\u003e, Simon Armitage shines light on another jewel of Middle English verse. In his highly engaging version, Armitage communicates the energy and humour of the tale with all the cut and thrust of the original.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAn unnamed narrator overhears a fiery verbal contest between the two eponymous birds, which moves entertainingly from the eloquent and philosophical to the ribald and ridiculous. The disputed issues still resonate - concerning identity, cultural habits, class distinctions and the right to be heard.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eExcerpts were featured in the \u003ci\u003eBBC Radio 4\u003c\/i\u003e podcast, The Poet Laureate Has Gone to His Shed. Including the lively illustrations of Clive Hicks-Jenkins, this is a book for the whole household to read and enjoy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46555658092780,"sku":"9780571357307","price":27.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/11249183482391.jpg?v=1750107446"},{"product_id":"the-owl-and-the-nightingale-by-simon-armitage-9780571357291","title":"The Owl and the Nightingale","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePoet Laureate Simon Armitage's version of this entertaining Middle English debate poem brings a fresh perspective to a classic work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Owl and the Nightingale\u003c\/em\u003e captures a lively argument between two birds—each representing different poetic and philosophical ideals—engaging readers with their witty exchanges.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eArmitage's modern rendering provides accessibility and wit, breathing new life into a centuries-old poem while preserving its original charm and humour.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46555660484844,"sku":"9780571357291","price":34.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/11249023482391.jpg?v=1750107581"},{"product_id":"walking-away-by-simon-armitage-9780571298365","title":"Walking Away","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNot content with walking the Pennine Way as a modern day troubadour, an experience recounted in his bestseller and prize-winning \u003ci\u003eWalking Home\u003c\/i\u003e, the restless poet has followed up that journey with a walk of the same distance but through the very opposite terrain and direction far from home.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eWalking Away\u003c\/i\u003e, Simon Armitage swaps the moorland uplands of the north for the coastal fringes of Britain's south west, once again giving readings every night, but this time through Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall, taking poetry into distant communities and tourist hot-spots, busking his way from start to finish.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the surreal pleasuredome of Minehead Butlins to a smoke-filled roundhouse on the Penwith Peninsula, then out to the Isles of Scilly and beyond, Armitage tackles this personal Odyssey with all the poetic reflection and personal wit we've come to expect of one of Britain's best-loved and most popular writers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46556738224364,"sku":"9780571298365","price":30.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/10659763482391.jpg?v=1750167402"},{"product_id":"paper-aeroplane-selected-poems-19892014-by-simon-armitage-9780571353392","title":"Paper Aeroplane: Selected Poems 1989–2014","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen Simon Armitage burst on to the poetry scene in 1989 with his spectacular debut \u003ci\u003eZoom!\u003c\/i\u003e, readers were introduced to an exceptional new talent who would reshape the landscape of contemporary poetry in the years to come. Now, Armitage's reputation as one of the nation's most original, most respected and most influential poets seems secure.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003ePaper Aeroplane: Poems 1989-2014\u003c\/i\u003e is the author's own choice of work from across a quarter-century of publishing. Drawing upon all of his award-winning poetry collections, including \u003ci\u003eKid, Book of Matches, The Universal Home Doctor, Seeing Stars\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Unaccompanied\u003c\/i\u003e, as well as his medieval translations and verse dramas, \u003ci\u003ePaper Aeroplane\u003c\/i\u003e represents a generous and thrilling gathering of work from one of contemporary poetry's most essential voices.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47426973630700,"sku":"9780571353392","price":39.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780571353392.jpg?v=1774767770"},{"product_id":"the-owl-and-the-nightingale-by-simon-armitage-9780571382859","title":"The Owl and the Nightingale","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eShortlisted for the Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn this \u003cem\u003egraceful, elegant translation\u003c\/em\u003e (\u003cem\u003eGuardian\u003c\/em\u003e), Poet Laureate Simon Armitage communicates the energy and humour of the Middle English tale with all the cut and thrust of the original. An unnamed narrator overhears a fiery verbal contest between the two eponymous birds, which moves entertainingly from the eloquent and philosophical to the ribald and ridiculous.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eArguably the greatest early Middle English poem we have.\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cem\u003eProspect\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47428301258988,"sku":"9780571382859","price":27.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780571382859.jpg?v=1774497120"},{"product_id":"magnetic-field-by-simon-armitage-9780571361458","title":"Magnetic Field","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGrowing up in Marsden among the hills of West Yorkshire, Simon Armitage has always associated his early poetic experiences with the night-time view from his bedroom window, those 'private, moonstruck observations' and the clockwork comings and goings in the village providing rich subject matter for his first poems. Decades on, that window continues to operate as both framework and focal point for the writing, the vastness of the surrounding moors always at his shoulder and forming a constant psychological backdrop, no matter how much time has elapsed and how distant those experiences.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eMagnetic Field\u003c\/i\u003e brings together Armitage's Marsden poems, from his very first pamphlet to new work from a forthcoming collection. It offers personal insight into a preoccupation that shows no signs of fading, and his perspective on a locality he describes as 'transcendent and transgressive', a genuinely unique region forming a frontier territory between many different worlds. \u003ci\u003eMagnetic Field\u003c\/i\u003e also invites questions about the forging of identity, the precariousness of memory, and our attachment to certain places and the forces they exert.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47431515832556,"sku":"9780571361458","price":32.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780571361458.jpg?v=1774557643"},{"product_id":"never-good-with-horses-by-simon-armitage-9780571377619","title":"Never Good with Horses","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn Simon Armitage's work, there has always been a territory he identifies as 'a twilight zone' where poetry and song lyric converge. He has explored it through numerous enterprises - most recently with the 'ambient post-rock' band Land Yacht Regatta. Many of the lyrics collected here were written for LYR. Others are drawn from Armitage's days with the DIY indie band The Scaremongers, various film and theatre productions including \u003cem\u003eSongbirds\u003c\/em\u003e and the BAFTA-winning \u003cem\u003eFeltham Sings\u003c\/em\u003e, and other miscellaneous ventures.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe volume's 'Intro' charts these projects and the blurred origins of ritualised language, while its 'Outro' offers contextualising notes and anecdotal insights. \u003cem\u003eNever Good with Horses\u003c\/em\u003e further demonstrates the rich range of Armitage's repertoire and celebrates his ear for the music of language, harnessed here for the page.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47431721353452,"sku":"9780571377619","price":36.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780571377619.jpg?v=1774557308"},{"product_id":"the-unaccompanied-by-simon-armitage-9780571333851","title":"The Unaccompanied","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'The most popular English poet since Larkin.' \u003cem\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAfter more than a decade and following his celebrated adventures in drama, translation, travel writing and prose poetry, Simon Armitage's eleventh collection of poems heralds a return to his trademark contemporary lyricism. The pieces in this multi-textured and moving volume are set against a backdrop of economic recession and social division, where mass media, the mass market and globalisation have made alienation a commonplace experience and where the solitary imagination drifts and conjures.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Unaccompanied\u003c\/em\u003e documents a world on the brink, a world of unreliable seasons and unstable coordinates, where Odysseus stalks the aisles of cut-price supermarkets in search of direction, where the star of Bethlehem rises over industrial Yorkshire, and where alarm bells for ailing communities go unheeded or unheard. Looking for certainty, the mind gravitates to recollections of upbringing and family, only to encounter more unrecoverable worlds, shaped as ever through Armitage's gifts for clarity and detail, as well as his characteristic dead-pan wit. Insightful, relevant and empathetic, these poems confirm \u003cem\u003eThe Unaccompanied\u003c\/em\u003e as a bold new statement of intent by one of our most respected and recognised living poets.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e'A writer who has had a game-changing influence on his contemporaries.' \u003cem\u003eGuardian\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e'Armitage is that rare beast: a poet whose work is ambitious, accomplished and complex as well as popular.' \u003cem\u003eSunday Telegraph\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e'The best poet of his generation.' 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Querying the facile and obscure ends of the poetry spectrum, these are more than anything personal essays that enquire into the volatile and disputed definitions of poetry from the point of view of a dedicated reader, a practising writer, and a lifelong champion of its power and potential.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47595737940204,"sku":"9780571357383","price":45.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780571357383-a-vertical-art.jpg?v=1777905461"},{"product_id":"the-death-of-king-arthur-by-simon-armitage-9780571298419","title":"The Death of King Arthur","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cem\u003eAlliterative Morte Arthure\u003c\/em\u003e—the title given to a four-thousand line poem written sometime around 1400—was part of a medieval Arthurian revival which produced such masterpieces as \u003cem\u003eSir Gawain and the Green Knight\u003c\/em\u003e and Sir Thomas Malory's prose \u003cem\u003eMorte D'Arthur\u003c\/em\u003e. \u003cem\u003eThe Death of King Arthur\u003c\/em\u003e deals in the cut-and-thrust of warfare and politics: the ever-topical matter of Britain's relationship with continental Europe, and of its military interests overseas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSimon Armitage is already the master of this alliterative music, as his earlier version of \u003cem\u003eSir Gawain and the Green Knight\u003c\/em\u003e (2006) so resourcefully and exuberantly showed. 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