If Disney are listening, give me a call,” says Simon Armitage, grinning. The Poet Laureate is pitching his latest volume of verse as a blockbuster. There is an arrogant king, a supernatural rival made from clay, battles in a cedar forest, terrifying monsters, the wrath of the gods and a desperate quest for eternal life. Friendship, adventure, spectacular violence – and, finally, grief.
In an interview on The Independent’s The Talk Show with editor-in-chief Geordie Greig, Armitage also opens up about the agony of his own grief in losing his father, why poetry has never mattered more and why he will always fight the enemy of poetry: sentimentality and righteousness.
