Poet Laureate Simon Armitages embarks on the next leg of his 10-year library tour

Poet Laureate Simon Armitage is embarking on the next leg of his 10-year tour of the UK’s libraries, visiting L to M Libraries.

Each spring this decade, Armitage is giving readings in libraries across the UK – including flagship libraries and smaller ones in rural communities – and his journey is planned using the alphabet.

The next stage of his tour will be held from 3rd to 11th March 2025, marking the halfway milestone of his project. It will include a series of free live-poetry readings in libraries, with different special guests in each location.

The L to M Libraries Tour will launch in Library@theGrange, Blackpool’s smallest library, and will visit a variety of libraries during the week, including the Letchworth Library, Swansea’s Morriston Hospital Library, Liskeard Library in Cornwall, and Belfast’s oldest library, The Linen Hall. Armitage will also return to Marsden Library in the Yorkshire village where he grew up, to read from Magnetic Field: The Marsden Poems (Faber).

He will be joined in Blackpool by spoken-word artist and playwright Toria Garbutt, while in Letchworth Garden City he will perform with Barbican Young Poet, Cia Mangat. The Poet Laureate will also visits Morriston Hospital Library in Swansea with special guest Menna Elfyn, who was made Poet Laureate for the Children of Wales in 2002.

The week also includes a performance by winners of Liskeard Library’s local poetry competition in English and Cornish, who will read alongside Armitage and Pascale Petit, a local poet whose work has won the RSL Ondaatje Prize and Laurel Prize for eco-poetry. The tour’s finale on 11th March will see Armitage read with poet Leontia Flynn.

Armitage said: "My experience of reading and writing began in the village library where I grew up, then in the nearby town library, then in libraries at various places of study and teaching. I want to pay my respects to these unique institutions. By planning readings up to a decade in advance, I’m being optimistic about the future of our libraries and challenging those authorities who would consider closing them down."

Further information on the Laureate’s Library Tour and details on how to book are available online. The events are free of charge but booking is essential.