A Passion for Poetry: An evening with Simon Armitage, Poet Laureate, and Pascale Petit

Join us for an evening of literary heaven as we’re joined by award winning poets Simon Armitage and Pascale Petit.

May 2025 sees the release of Simon’s latest publication, Dwell, inspired by The Lost Gardens of Heligan.

The reawakened landscape with its woods, meadows and ‘jungle’ offers a bustling, fertile realm for all sorts of creatures to inhabit. Armitage uses elements of riddle and folklore to animate a series of dwellings: the ‘twig-and-leaf crow’s-nest squat’ of a squirrel’s drey, a beaver lodge’s ‘spillikin stave church’ and a hive’s ‘reactor core’. Distinctions between human and animal, natural and cultivated, are blurred, emphasising commonality and creating a vibrant account of ‘non-stop stop-motion life’.

Dwell warns of the fragility of these spaces and their dwellers, exposed to relentless and sadly familiar environmental threats. Just as a garden provides refuge for wildlife, so do these intricate poems offer lasting homes to those who dwell within their lines.

Our evening with Simon will be complemented by a reading from French-British poet Pascale Petit.

Doors open at 6 pm allowing attendees the opportunity to walk through our romantic gardens and enjoy food and drink beforehand - a truly Heligan experience rooting those attending with a sense of home.