The Shed

Simon Armitage invites you to step inside his writing shed, nestled in the hills of West Yorkshire, for an intimate and uplifting celebration of conversation and creativity conducted over a proper brew. He's ready to welcome an eclectic mix of guests in for a natter, with delightfully meandering conversations ranging across the personal and the poetic. Each episode features a tea-break courtesy of friends and partners Yorkshire Tea, and sees Simon present his guests with not only their choice of biscuits but also a hand-picked selection from the ancient poem he’s been translating, Gilgamesh, inscribed on Eucalyptus bark from his garden.

Produced by Geoff Bird.

Last refreshed: March 20th, 2026 at 9:55 PM ⓘ

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Episodes

Angela Harding

It’s another Shed away-day, with Simon making a flying visit to Wing in Rutland, where, in a studio burrowed into the bottom of her garden, Angela Harding is inspired to create some of the most beaiutiful and recognisable illustrations of recent times. Her images of animals, birds and both coastal and rural landscapes have graced the pages of some of our best known and most beloved writers, from Melissa Harrison to Isabella Tree, as well as an up and coming chancer called Simon Armitage. Angela'...

Dec 10, 2025•56 min•Ep. 6

Richard Hawley

On a stormy late-summer afternoon, a legendary singer-songwriter makes the seismic journey from South Yorkshire to West Yorkshire to drop in on Simon and make sure he's properly kitted out for the wild winds and lashing rain. Richard Hawley is perhaps our greatest living balladeer. As well as having played alongside some of the biggest names in music, he's also made a major name for himself with his own band, playing countless live shows and producing albums like 'Coles Corner', 'Hollow Meadows'...

Dec 03, 2025•47 min•Ep. 5

Reeta Chakrabarti

Simon welcomes journalist, newsreader and now novelist Reeta Chakrabarti to the shed for a conversation that arcs from her childhood in Birmingham to reporting from conflict zones around the world. Reeta discusses her debut novel, Finding Belle, a moving coming-of-age tale of family, identity, mental illness and cross-cultural roots that moves from the beaches of Mombasa to England in the 1970s - a place she describes as a more difficult and sometimes more brutal place than in it is today. Over ...

Nov 26, 2025•55 min•Ep. 4

Susie Dent

Being the gormful chap he is, Simon is deeply happified to welcome Britain's best-known and best loved lexicographer and etymologist Susie Dent to the shed. Susie has not only served in Countdown's Dictionary Corner for more than three decades (and graced the slightly less seemly environs of '8 Out of Ten Cats' in the process), she has also written the novel 'Guilty by Definition' and numerous non-fiction books delighting in the English language. It's German, though, that really captured her hea...

Nov 19, 2025•1 hr•Ep. 3

Self Esteem

It's not just anyone who could lure Simon away from his Yorkshire fox-hole for a shed away-day - but the chance to meet the magnificently multi-talented musician, actress and erstwhile fast-bowler Self Esteem is more than enough incentive to get him on the train. She tells him all about the thrills and frustrations of a career in music, her hopes of branching out into more experimental work, the pleasure she gets from acting - and introduces Simon to the glow-worm that's been a constant companio...

Nov 12, 2025•51 min•Ep. 2

Frank Skinner

It almost goes without saying that Frank Skinner is one of the most successful comedians and broadcasters of the past thirty years. More recently he has also proved himself to be an extremely astute and generous reader of poetry through the brilliant 'Frank Skinner's Poetry Podcast' which sees him navigate the work of a wide range of poets with all the engagement, skill and apparent effortlessness he's brought to his stand-up. As he tells Simon during his visit to The Shed, that effortlessness a...

Nov 03, 2025•58 min•Ep. 1

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