There's a "whiff of rot" about modern Britain, says Simon Armitage. Armitage, a poet, playwright, novelist, and literary social commentator, has been writing about Britain for 30 years now, almost reaching national treasure status after becoming the unlikely recipient of a CBE.
In the latest in our National Conversations series of interviews, Armitage talks to Guardian columnist John Harris about the widening cracks he sees in UK society, along with a wealth of subjects both personal and political.
Armitage talks about the moment at school in Huddersfield when he decided he wanted to be a poet, though he studied geography before making a career as a writer.
As he explains, his work is smattered with themes of life and death at their most brutal. It's also rooted in the north, where he still lives, keeping his distance from the southern establishment - though he hates the label "northern poet". Tellingly, when Yorkshire Tea recently asked him to be the voice of their brand recently, he turned them down.
