Simon Armitage will be reading his poems in village halls, libraries, arts centres, a museum, a converted chapel, two farms, and will be seen on beaches during his Walking Away tour of the west country, which starts in Minehead on 28 August and finishes in the Isles of Scilly on 19 September. There’s even a pre-launch reading in Coleridge Cottage, in Nether Stowey, Somerset, on 27 August to provide inspiration. As Armitage explains on his website, a couple of years ago he walked the Pennine Way as a wandering poet, giving poetry readings every night in return for bed, breakfast and a round of butties. Now he is writing the follow-up to that book of that walk, about a journey on foot from Minehead in Somerset along the north coast of the South West Coast Path to Land's End and beyond..

Armitage said: “Once again I'll be bartering my way from start to finish, giving readings and passing the hat around, inviting the audience to put in whatever they think I'm worth. I want to see if I can pay my way with poetry alone, but this time away from my home ground, and getting further distant every day, towards where the country narrows to a point and the Atlantic begins...”

You can read his full south-west itinerary, including dates, places and times, here