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All Points North
A revised and expanded reissue of Simon Armitages outstanding, universally acclaimed and bestselling memoir about growing up in the north of England - published to coincide with the paperback of Gig.
All Points North is part-memoir and part-excursion. Charting the rugged and uneven terrain of a writer's formative years - from tax problems to probation to American tours, football to family to running away to Iceland - Simon Armitage explores growing up and being Northern. It's about humour, language, writing, film, houses, homes, time wasters, one loose tyre, you, me and all points in-between.
All Points North is part-memoir and part-excursion. Charting the rugged and uneven terrain of a writer's formative years - from tax problems to probation to American tours, football to family to running away to Iceland - Simon Armitage explores growing up and being Northern. It's about humour, language, writing, film, houses, homes, time wasters, one loose tyre, you, me and all points in-between.
256 pages, ebook
First published August 27, 1998
32 people are currently reading
274 people want to read
About the author
Simon Armitage
144 books363 followersSimon Armitage, whose The Shout was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, has published ten volumes of poetry and has received numerous honors for his work. He was appointed UK Poet Laureate in 2019
Armitage's poetry collections include Book of Matches (1993) and The Dead Sea Poems (1995). He has written two novels, Little Green Man (2001) and The White Stuff (2004), as well as All Points North (1998), a collection of essays on the north of England. He has produced a dramatised version of Homer's Odyssey and a collection of poetry entitled Tyrannosaurus Rex Versus The Corduroy Kid (which was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize), both of which were published in July 2006. Many of Armitage's poems appear in the AQA (Assessment and Qualifications Alliance) GCSE syllabus for English Literature in the United Kingdom. These include "Homecoming", "November", "Kid", "Hitcher", and a selection of poems from Book of Matches, most notably of these "Mother any distance...". His writing is characterised by a dry Yorkshire wit combined with "an accessible, realist style and critical seriousness."
Armitage's poetry collections include Book of Matches (1993) and The Dead Sea Poems (1995). He has written two novels, Little Green Man (2001) and The White Stuff (2004), as well as All Points North (1998), a collection of essays on the north of England. He has produced a dramatised version of Homer's Odyssey and a collection of poetry entitled Tyrannosaurus Rex Versus The Corduroy Kid (which was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize), both of which were published in July 2006. Many of Armitage's poems appear in the AQA (Assessment and Qualifications Alliance) GCSE syllabus for English Literature in the United Kingdom. These include "Homecoming", "November", "Kid", "Hitcher", and a selection of poems from Book of Matches, most notably of these "Mother any distance...". His writing is characterised by a dry Yorkshire wit combined with "an accessible, realist style and critical seriousness."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 61 reviews
June 18, 2017
I was hoping for a lot more in this book I think...
Armitage is a very good poet. However, this memoir-cum-guide-cum-collection of stories did not convey that same talent. At first I was very drawn to the way in which Armitage portrays the local area I too have grown up in and the differing opinions he offers. This is definitely a strength of the book - Armitage gives his own unrelenting stance with wit and wry humour but also in a very genuine way. I also felt however that some parts of this were simply memories that Armitage wanted to write down but carried no meaning when conveyed to someone else. Overall there were some nice parts about life before the turn of the millenium but not a huge amount that would interest someone from outside the area I fear. armitage loses his crystalline poetic voice among the lengths excerpts.
The standout part for me is the short dramatic scene 'Jerusalem' which very eloquently and concisely puts across petty village rivalries and scheming as well as traditions and friendships that can often be found in small West Yorkshire villages. I would very much have liked to see more along this theme as Armitage has a real talent.
Armitage is a very good poet. However, this memoir-cum-guide-cum-collection of stories did not convey that same talent. At first I was very drawn to the way in which Armitage portrays the local area I too have grown up in and the differing opinions he offers. This is definitely a strength of the book - Armitage gives his own unrelenting stance with wit and wry humour but also in a very genuine way. I also felt however that some parts of this were simply memories that Armitage wanted to write down but carried no meaning when conveyed to someone else. Overall there were some nice parts about life before the turn of the millenium but not a huge amount that would interest someone from outside the area I fear. armitage loses his crystalline poetic voice among the lengths excerpts.
The standout part for me is the short dramatic scene 'Jerusalem' which very eloquently and concisely puts across petty village rivalries and scheming as well as traditions and friendships that can often be found in small West Yorkshire villages. I would very much have liked to see more along this theme as Armitage has a real talent.
February 25, 2018
I enjoyed this collection of pieces by poet Simon Armitage, but found it a mixed bag. I enjoyed the more autobiographical parts best, but there are things to like in all the chapters. It's not a book to read from cover to cover straight through - I found it worked best when reading one section at a time with a pause between.
September 1, 2016
An exercise in missing an easy target (one hit repeatedly by Maconie among others) over and over again due to poor execution. And you felt the second person conceit (that's how it came across) was bloody annoying....
February 7, 2017
Maybe it's just because I live in the north and only a few miles from Simon Armitage that I like this so much. It's full of gritty pennine atmosphere and no nonsense humour. A great read.
March 17, 2021
This book is so honest. It is a real insight to life as a Northerner, where Armitage grants the reader a glance at the mundane parts of life - often overlooked, and relates them with a blatant beauty causing the reader to question why life has not been seen this way before.
Armitage uses satire at the expense of himself and others, narrating small moments of his own life in a hilariously funny and unbiased way.
With it’s references to local figures, cultures, and society in general, this book is very relatable, enjoyable and easy to read.
This book makes me want to stop, observe all the small things that occur in every day life and appreciate their comforts.
A prize to anyone who reads it.
Armitage uses satire at the expense of himself and others, narrating small moments of his own life in a hilariously funny and unbiased way.
With it’s references to local figures, cultures, and society in general, this book is very relatable, enjoyable and easy to read.
This book makes me want to stop, observe all the small things that occur in every day life and appreciate their comforts.
A prize to anyone who reads it.
August 12, 2013
I live just down the valley from the places that Simon talks about so I have to confess an additional interest in this book. However, it's still a good read, although I suspect his readers drop off the further south you travel. I particularly like his news snippets, my favourite being the Halifax man who misread the World record for living in a tree and came down after 26 days instead of 26 years. Very droll, funny and Northern
January 20, 2011
Disappointed in this. I love Simon Armitage's poetry. This is a bit of a mish mash of recollections, anecdotes, life story. Some very amusing bits. But other large sections which appear to be drafts or extracts of mini-plays which did nothing for me and I ended up skipping parts. Worth a read if you're already an Armitage fan
November 9, 2012
Didn't connect with Simon. I think he's the kind of guy you have to see live rather than read...it must be all in the delivery.
He has me interested in two films though - Kes and Regeneration http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kes_(film) and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regenera....
1 0f 23 books all for $10
He has me interested in two films though - Kes and Regeneration http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kes_(film) and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regenera....
1 0f 23 books all for $10
Read
July 27, 2011Typically amusing volume of short prose pieces and some poetry, with the common theme of theme of The North, and especially Yorkshire. Armitage is an acute observer of the small things that make us all absurd, and describes them with great affection and wry humour.
January 2, 2024
Simon Armitage is the Poet Laureate and definitely has a way with words. The book is not all poems, but the language and imagery of the short pieces which fill its pages are sheer poetry.
He describes The North and there’s an evidential pride in belonging to that part of England which starts in Cumbria and Northumberland going down as far as Cheshire and Yorkshire. I felt that sense of belonging when I recognised places such as the Travellers Inn just up from the Wednesday ground in Sheffield and directions from Harvey Nichols to Quarry House in Leeds.
My favourite section is Jerusalem. It’s a piece packed with vivid characters, there’s movement and stillness conveyed without using conventional words or images and the story has tension, romance, drama and, well, I’ll let you read the ending for yourself and see if you think it’s the right one
He describes The North and there’s an evidential pride in belonging to that part of England which starts in Cumbria and Northumberland going down as far as Cheshire and Yorkshire. I felt that sense of belonging when I recognised places such as the Travellers Inn just up from the Wednesday ground in Sheffield and directions from Harvey Nichols to Quarry House in Leeds.
My favourite section is Jerusalem. It’s a piece packed with vivid characters, there’s movement and stillness conveyed without using conventional words or images and the story has tension, romance, drama and, well, I’ll let you read the ending for yourself and see if you think it’s the right one
November 2, 2020
A great book, a wonderful collection of recollections, notes, poems, scripts and stories. Of course, the fact it focuses on my home town of Huddersfilef and especially on Marsden, where I lived as a teen is just the icing on the cake. It's a perfect book except for the fact he claims Oasis played the McAlpine stadium in support of R.E.M. when in fact they pulled out about a week before the show having become too big for support slots by that time.
April 2, 2021
A fairly gentle, affectionate, knowing portrait (and in part, self-portrait) of people and places in Yorkshire and environs.
October 29, 2015
Never having read Simon Armitage’s poetry, I thought it might be a good thing to look at some of his prose, as well, to get my bearings. It’s an apt metaphor, since “all points north” is ambiguously both a statement about all the places in the north and a statement about how everything points to the north. In the course of the book’s 53 “chapters” one is given a dizzying and surreal portrait of what it means to live in Yorkshire, whilst occasionally going over the top into Lancashire (primarily Manchester and environs). While a handful of the chapters are scripts for radio broadcasts, a mock-script for a telly drama, and one a 9-minute movie script, most of these could stand as quirkly prose poems, a form that Armitage displayed in Seeing Stars in 2010.
For a US-bred reader such as myself, any one of the vignettes presents a challenge in properly unpacking its contents, much as any decent poem requires a careful word-by-word and line-by-line scrutiny to understand just how that nuance subtly shifted into statement. Maybe when you’ve lived in Marsden for fifty years, according to Armitage’s dad, you might no longer be considered a comers-in, but you’d be dead by then... Understated implication is a good deal of what this book is about, as well as the sly humor lurking behind. There’s what I’ve discovered is the essential English irony, but there is a bit more grimness in the Yorkshire version, at least as I’ve seen it in Armitage.
The amazing contradiction about Armitage and the image of the dour, taciturn Yorkshireman is that Armitage is prolix and profuse, verbally adept at capturing scenes and instances and conversation that seem in the re-telling to spill out of him. An occasion for sort of fluid discourse might be the pub, where recounting a tale of Yorkshireman’s foolishness would naturally fall, but where does one—in what company?—share an account of a Christmas Eve church service full with children's christingles and the aftermath when parents stand idly looking into the starry sky with lit cigarettes in hand?
A sampling of the topics this verbose poet is able to bring under his northern light:
• “No, we’re alright, us,” says a Scarborough man after raising unexploded WWII mine
• Rooting for Huddersfield football, but always having Leeds as a back-up
• Six years in Manchester with probation services
• Background of poem “Tyre”, with more about his father’s scrounging days as tyre jobber
• Quail fighting
• Yorkshire Water incompetent to stop continuous leak during drought
• Times Literary Supplement poets whup up on fiction writers in cricket match
• Nicky Butt and David Batty on the pitch
• Talking about Lady Di’s smalls and cloth caps in first televised appearance
• An evening with dj John Peel, forgetting to read his poetry
• Sussing the differences in topee, toupee, and teepee
• To read or not read a poem about a crippled man when one is in the audience
• While film is typically a boil-in-the-bag book, Kes is not
• His poem for the Co-op
• His father leads Marsden troupe in King Arthur pantomime in Bridlington
• One annual walk of the Yorkshire Avalanche Dodgers
• Scenes on the M62
• Learning that poets insurance rates are higher than probation officers, because of the “nutters and all”
• Voting is like making a wish, putting a tooth under the pillow
• Film crew dislodges Operatic and Amateur Dramatic Society
• The forgotten liberal firebrand Albert Victor of 1907
• Mistaken for a rapist, but, oops, that was Simon Pemberton, sorry…
• Walking out to car to get cricket updates rather than succumbing to Sky
• Quarry House in Leeds, the DSS building from the south
• Reading poetry in US, only tolerable with Huddersfield Examiner and Yorkshire Post at hand
• Lolling in sultry lagoon in Iceland with his mum
• Fish used to re-stock Yorkshire streams too apathetic to swim
While there is probably a good deal I missed in his chapter called Jerusalem, a mock telly soap opera, it was one of the book’s highlights, full of silliness, unspoken emotion, and grotesqueries that soar into absurdity, though not without a final bit of exalting pathos. Very clever, and fun!
Early on in All Points North, Armitage speaks of belonging, how he can best see himself in the various individuals in a crowd in Marsden or Leeds, rather than in a mirror. This sums up the book as well, how it serves as a portrait of the artist as an aggregation of parts, all them pointing north.
For a US-bred reader such as myself, any one of the vignettes presents a challenge in properly unpacking its contents, much as any decent poem requires a careful word-by-word and line-by-line scrutiny to understand just how that nuance subtly shifted into statement. Maybe when you’ve lived in Marsden for fifty years, according to Armitage’s dad, you might no longer be considered a comers-in, but you’d be dead by then... Understated implication is a good deal of what this book is about, as well as the sly humor lurking behind. There’s what I’ve discovered is the essential English irony, but there is a bit more grimness in the Yorkshire version, at least as I’ve seen it in Armitage.
The amazing contradiction about Armitage and the image of the dour, taciturn Yorkshireman is that Armitage is prolix and profuse, verbally adept at capturing scenes and instances and conversation that seem in the re-telling to spill out of him. An occasion for sort of fluid discourse might be the pub, where recounting a tale of Yorkshireman’s foolishness would naturally fall, but where does one—in what company?—share an account of a Christmas Eve church service full with children's christingles and the aftermath when parents stand idly looking into the starry sky with lit cigarettes in hand?
A sampling of the topics this verbose poet is able to bring under his northern light:
• “No, we’re alright, us,” says a Scarborough man after raising unexploded WWII mine
• Rooting for Huddersfield football, but always having Leeds as a back-up
• Six years in Manchester with probation services
• Background of poem “Tyre”, with more about his father’s scrounging days as tyre jobber
• Quail fighting
• Yorkshire Water incompetent to stop continuous leak during drought
• Times Literary Supplement poets whup up on fiction writers in cricket match
• Nicky Butt and David Batty on the pitch
• Talking about Lady Di’s smalls and cloth caps in first televised appearance
• An evening with dj John Peel, forgetting to read his poetry
• Sussing the differences in topee, toupee, and teepee
• To read or not read a poem about a crippled man when one is in the audience
• While film is typically a boil-in-the-bag book, Kes is not
• His poem for the Co-op
• His father leads Marsden troupe in King Arthur pantomime in Bridlington
• One annual walk of the Yorkshire Avalanche Dodgers
• Scenes on the M62
• Learning that poets insurance rates are higher than probation officers, because of the “nutters and all”
• Voting is like making a wish, putting a tooth under the pillow
• Film crew dislodges Operatic and Amateur Dramatic Society
• The forgotten liberal firebrand Albert Victor of 1907
• Mistaken for a rapist, but, oops, that was Simon Pemberton, sorry…
• Walking out to car to get cricket updates rather than succumbing to Sky
• Quarry House in Leeds, the DSS building from the south
• Reading poetry in US, only tolerable with Huddersfield Examiner and Yorkshire Post at hand
• Lolling in sultry lagoon in Iceland with his mum
• Fish used to re-stock Yorkshire streams too apathetic to swim
While there is probably a good deal I missed in his chapter called Jerusalem, a mock telly soap opera, it was one of the book’s highlights, full of silliness, unspoken emotion, and grotesqueries that soar into absurdity, though not without a final bit of exalting pathos. Very clever, and fun!
Early on in All Points North, Armitage speaks of belonging, how he can best see himself in the various individuals in a crowd in Marsden or Leeds, rather than in a mirror. This sums up the book as well, how it serves as a portrait of the artist as an aggregation of parts, all them pointing north.
August 25, 2015
For me, as a Yorkshirewoman, there are many laugh out loud moments in Simon Armitage’s All Points North and others that make me feel fond of my home county.
But the piece that stayed with me longest was the page on ‘Writing’.
Writing, he says, is “a form of disappearance. Burglars watching the house from outside for four or five hours would think it empty. There isn’t another human activity which combines stillness and silence with so much energy.”
I know exactly what he means. I will be upstairs in my attic study, writing all day, my husband out, my only movement during the day is to make a cup of tea and scrounge a handful of fruit and nuts from the snack jar. When I come down at the end of the day, turning off the lights as an unconscious signal to myself not to go back upstairs and start working again, it is not uncommon to find ‘we tried to deliver but you were out’ postcards on the mat, or parcels piled up outside the front door. It’s not that our doorbell isn’t up to the job, simply that when you’re in the zone that’s where you are.
Read more about my thoughts on books and writing at www.sandradanby.com
But the piece that stayed with me longest was the page on ‘Writing’.
Writing, he says, is “a form of disappearance. Burglars watching the house from outside for four or five hours would think it empty. There isn’t another human activity which combines stillness and silence with so much energy.”
I know exactly what he means. I will be upstairs in my attic study, writing all day, my husband out, my only movement during the day is to make a cup of tea and scrounge a handful of fruit and nuts from the snack jar. When I come down at the end of the day, turning off the lights as an unconscious signal to myself not to go back upstairs and start working again, it is not uncommon to find ‘we tried to deliver but you were out’ postcards on the mat, or parcels piled up outside the front door. It’s not that our doorbell isn’t up to the job, simply that when you’re in the zone that’s where you are.
Read more about my thoughts on books and writing at www.sandradanby.com
June 30, 2025
Understatedly enjoyable, this meandering collection of anecdotes, poems, illustrative news pieces and fictional asides aims to quietly say something about The North (moreso Yorkshire). Compared to others on the same subject (ie. Stuart Maconie) this is delivered in an unpretentious ‘take it or leave it’ manner, a little less like the author is ‘talking about this project’ and is mindful of this. I’ve read a Simon Armitage book about walking The Pennine Way before, which was slightly underwhelming, but this book - though similar- didn’t bother me in that way. Some parts I skim read a little, poems/fiction, but it was overall an enjoyable read.
July 17, 2011
Enjoyable stuff, and I liked the eclectic mix of prose and poetry (although Armitage's prose is pretty poetic it has to be said). Some especially satisfying episodes were the trip that Armitage's drama group made to Bridlington, and several anecdotes from Armitage's school days.
Must admit to flicking through the pages a little impatiently towards the end, particularly during the astronomical chapter, but it was a good book to read on the back of a hefty tome and I felt slightly envious at points for not being a northerner. But only slightly.
Must admit to flicking through the pages a little impatiently towards the end, particularly during the astronomical chapter, but it was a good book to read on the back of a hefty tome and I felt slightly envious at points for not being a northerner. But only slightly.
January 14, 2014
I remember this as one of my favourite ever books, and the first few chapters completely justified this memory. However, after a beautifully funny opening it tailed off by quite a margin. The reproduced transcripts and scripts of plays and programmes he has written are rather boring and I just flicked through them. However, the good bits are bloody great. Should stay on the shelf to dip in and out of.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 19, 2009
Warm lovely book full of anecdotes and reflections on Yorkshire, poetry, Yorkshire poetry and Armitage's experiences as both a probation officer and as a media person. Brought many smiles to my face. Want to read more of his work.
April 5, 2014
Enjoyed this very much, possibly because I'm originally from somewhere not that far away from him.
I recognised the things he discussed without ever having actually experienced them. A West Yorkshire childhood shared.
I recognised the things he discussed without ever having actually experienced them. A West Yorkshire childhood shared.
Read
October 25, 2008really good if you want to understand what it is to be from up north (uk)
April 1, 2010
A hotpot of northern stories from my favourite poet.
November 7, 2010
Witty, sweet, interesting, funny...read it!
Read
August 5, 2011I absolutely loved this. Simon Armitage has managed to turn being from the north into an art form.
August 7, 2011
Very funny.
May 29, 2012
Wonderful. But is that because I'm an adoptive Northerner?
May 24, 2012
I am definitely not a Simon Armitage fan but have only been reading his works to help my son revise/study for his English Literature exams.
May 5, 2013
If you're from the North of England this is required reading
August 3, 2013
Sorry . Only managed to skim read this as it didn't grab me.
June 26, 2014
Enjoyable but not what I expected, I suppose I expected more humour and more, what I would call or identify as 'northernness' if such a word can exist.
June 21, 2015
Wry, well-observed, often very funny. The Alan Bennett comparisons are both fair and unavoidable, but Armitage always feels slightly more 'of the world' to me. Very enjoyable.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 61 reviews