Killing Time

Limited first edition. 8vo. 64pp. Black cloth backstrip over mustard yellow paperboards, stamped in gilt to brick-red panel on spine. Housed in a black cloth slipcase. #20 of 100 numbered copies signed by the Author. There were an additional 10 lettered examples reserved for the poet himself.

Armitage was commissioned to write a 1000-line poem after being appointed poet-in-residence with the New Millennium Society. Channel 4 broadcast a 90 minute televised version of the fruits of his labour on New Year's Day 2000, in a production directed by Brian Hill and performed by Christopher Eccleston. Appointed Poet Laureate in 2019, Armitage is currently professor of poetry at the University of Leeds, a post he took up after completing his four-year elected stint (2015–19) to the chair of Oxford Professor of Poetry.