It is with tremendous pleasure and pride that we can officially announce the visit of one of literature’s leading figures, Professor Simon Armitage, to Harrow in October 2017. This renowned poet, author and highly respected gentleman will be visiting the school from Saturday 14th to Monday 16th October, with a number of events, culminating in the official opening of the school library, fittingly named, ‘The Simon Armitage Library’.
As well as opening the Library on the Sunday evening, Professor Armitage will also work with our students on the Monday, in a day dedicated to reading, writing, speaking and listening. Time will be spent with our younger students in creative writing workshops, and our senior students and guests will have an opportunity to hear Professor Armitage lecture them on poems they will study for their iGCSE English Literature course, while A level students will have a chance for a one-to-one on their thoughts, ideas and beliefs on literature.
Our students will have the chance to meet face-to-face a creative writer who has many successes behind him, and no doubt many more to come. He has been Poet in Residence for the New Millennium Experience Company, received an Eric Gregory award, been nominated for the T.S. Elliot Prize and is commonly shortlisted for all major poetry prizes. Professor Armitage was made a C.B.E in 2010 and was elected as Oxford University’s Professor of Poetry in 2015. The students here at Harrow will meet a literary ‘great’. As a highly regarded speaker, Professor Armitage fills venues wherever he travels. Critics praise his delivery and how he engages his audiences. ‘Poetry Archive’ writes of him: “the listener feels the rhythms have grown naturally out of the poet’s speaking voice” and ‘The Telegraph’ describes his work as “accomplished, ambitious and popular, Simon Armitage is a rare modern poet…”
To have Professor Armitage attend Harrow is a true honour and marks our intention to have literature and literacy as a prominent feature of our academic life here. This much anticipated event promises to be a special period in our calendar and will inspire students and staff to explore their own creative and imaginative abilities.
