Simon Armitage was born in West Yorkshire, England in 1963. He earned a BA from Portsmouth University in geography, and an MS in social work from Manchester University, where he studied the impact of televised violence on young offenders. He worked as a probation officer for six years before focusing on poetry.

Percy Byshee Shelley

He made almost no money from his writings during his lifetime. His income was primarily from the money left to him by his grandfather, and this is how he had time to write although he was not considered successful while alive.

He was a very strict vegetarian, and wrote many pamphlets on the benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle.
-He passed away shortly before his thirtieth birthday.

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