The Universal Home Doctor by Simon Armitage - signed

This paperback edition of The Universal Home Doctor has been signed by the author, Simon Armitage. It was signed here at Salts in December 2022.  

Shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize

Splinter
Was it a fall in pressure or some upward force
that went to the head of that spikelet of glass
and drew it through flesh, caused it to show its face
so many years to the day after the great crash.

The Universal Home Doctor, first published in 2002, was Armitage's most personal collection to that point and, as the title implies, reads like his own private encyclopaedia of emotion and health. These vivid and moving poems recount numerous memories and personal journeys from across the globe, but with a constant reference to the most universal and intimate landscape of all, the human body. Armitage also brings into question the idea of home and what it means to be English.