Simon Armitage has been appointed as the 21st UK Poet Laureate, succeeding Dame Carol Ann Duffy, who served in the role between 2009 and 2019.

Armitage, currently Professor of Poetry at Leeds and Oxford Universities, also received The Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry last year, and commented 'I want to celebrate and speak on behalf of the variety of voices who contribute to the rich chorus of British poetry from a wide range of personal, literary and cultural experiences, and to help poetry explore its potential in a multi-faceted, multi-vocal and multi-media age'.