Sir Gawain And The Green Knight – Revised Edition With Illustrations By Clive Hicks-Jenkins – Signed By Clive Hicks-Jenkins

Author: Armitage, Simon & Hicks-Jenkins, Clive
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Price: £95 including postage in the UK
Publication Date: 2018
Edition: First edition thus
Size: Octavo
Condition: Fine in fine dustwrapper

Condition:

Signed to the title page by the illustrator. Illustrated throughout by Hicks-Jenkins with reproductions from the 14 screenprint collaboration with Daniel Bugg of the Penfold Press. Copy of the late Sarah Parvin. Clive Hicks-Jenkins was effusive of his praise of Sarah in 2015: ‘Sarah, your energy and enthusiasm fired this project… it quite simply wouldn’t have happened… You are the ‘matchmaker!’. A fine copy in fine dustwrapper.

Simon Armitage: A Brief Biography

Overview

Simon Armitage (b. 26 May 1963) is one of the most significant contemporary British poets, widely recognised for his ability to bridge literary tradition and popular accessibility. His work spans poetry, translation, drama, prose, and broadcasting, and he has served as the UK’s Poet Laureate since 2019. His writing is characterised by clarity of voice, emotional precision, and a deep engagement with landscape, language, and myth.

Early Life and Education

• Born in Marsden, West Yorkshire, a Pennine village whose landscape profoundly shaped his imagination
• Educated at Colne Valley High School
• Studied Geography at the University of Portsmouth
• Completed postgraduate study in Social Work at the University of Manchester

Before becoming a full-time writer, Armitage worked as a probation officer, an experience that informed his early interest in human behaviour, marginal lives, and moral complexity.

Poetic Emergence (Late 1980s–1990s)

Armitage emerged as part of a generation that revitalised British poetry in the late 20th century.

Key early collections:

• Zoom! (1989)
• Xanadu (1992)
• Book of Matches (1993)
• CloudCuckooLand (1997)

These works established his signature style:

• colloquial yet controlled language
• dark humour
• precise observational detail
• narratives rooted in everyday British life

He developed a voice that is immediately intelligible while retaining formal sophistication.

Breakthrough and Wider Recognition

Armitage gained broader public recognition through:

• Poetry engaging with contemporary culture and ordinary experience
• Radio and television appearances
• Strong performance delivery of his own work

Later collections such as Killing Time (1999) and The Universal Home Doctor (2002) expanded his reputation.

Translations and Engagement with Medieval Literature

One of Armitage’s most significant contributions has been his modern translations of medieval texts.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (2007)

• A translation of the anonymous 14th-century poem
• Retains the original’s alliterative structure while making it accessible to modern readers
• Widely praised for balancing fidelity and readability

This translation:

• revitalised interest in the Gawain narrative
• provided the textual basis for later visual interpretations
• positioned Armitage as a mediator between medieval literature and contemporary audiences

He later translated:

• The Death of King Arthur (2011)
• Pearl (2016)

Together, these works represent a major modern re-engagement with Middle English literature.

Other Writing and Media Work

Armitage’s output extends beyond poetry.

Prose:

• All Points North (1998) — memoir and travel writing rooted in Northern England
• Gig: The Life and Times of a Rock-Star Fantasist (2008)

Drama and Broadcasting:

• Numerous radio plays
• Stage adaptations and libretti
• Documentary work exploring landscape, walking, and poetry

His work often combines literary and geographical exploration, particularly through walking-based projects.

Themes and Style

Armitage’s work is defined by several consistent concerns:

Landscape

• The Pennines and Northern England recur as physical and psychological terrain
• Landscape functions as memory, identity, and narrative space

Myth and Reinterpretation

• Engagement with myth, folklore, and medieval literature
• Reworking rather than simple translation

Voice and Accessibility

• Conversational tone underpinned by formal control
• Strong performance dimension

Time and Mortality

• Recurring exploration of ageing, loss, and historical continuity

Academic and Professional Roles

• Professor of Poetry at the University of Leeds
• Previously taught at the University of Sheffield

His academic work complements his public-facing role, positioning him as both scholar and communicator.

Poet Laureate (2019–Present)

Armitage was appointed UK Poet Laureate in 2019.

Key aspects of his tenure:

• Emphasis on public engagement with poetry
• Development of national initiatives to promote access to poetry
• Writing in response to contemporary events, including the COVID-19 pandemic

His laureateship has focused on making poetry visible and relevant within everyday life.

Awards and Honours

• Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry (2018)
• Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)
• Numerous honorary doctorates
• Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature

Significance

Simon Armitage occupies a distinctive position in contemporary British culture:

• A public-facing poet with broad appeal
• A custodian of literary tradition, particularly medieval texts
• A translator across time, making historical literature accessible to modern audiences

His translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is especially significant in that it reintroduced the poem into contemporary cultural circulation and provided a framework for subsequent artistic interpretations.

Concise Assessment

Armitage’s importance lies in his ability to operate across three domains:

• Literary tradition (translation, form, scholarship)
• Contemporary culture (accessibility, public engagement)
• Interdisciplinary influence (enabling work across art forms)

He functions as a mediator between past and present, shaping how historical texts are understood and reinterpreted in the modern era.

Clive Hicks-Jenkins And ‘Sir Gawain And The Green Knight’: A Brief Overview

Overview

Clive Hicks-Jenkins’ engagement with Sir Gawain and the Green Knight represents a sustained exploration of myth, performance and transformation within his practice. Originating in painting and later realised as a major print series, the subject provided a framework for one of his most coherent narrative projects.

Early Engagement

Hicks-Jenkins began producing works based on the Gawain narrative around 2007, following Simon Armitage’s modern translation. These early paintings explored the symbolic and psychological dimensions of the text, aligning with his ongoing interests in theatre, ritual and archetypal figures.

From Painting to Printmaking — A Facilitated Transition

Although the artist had worked with the Gawain theme for several years, he had not developed it as a print series prior to 2015.

At this point, evidence indicates that the move into printmaking arose through external facilitation.

Contemporaneous material shows that Sarah Parvin:

• was in active dialogue with Hicks-Jenkins about the development and presentation of his work
• identified the potential of the Gawain subject as a print project
• facilitated the introduction to printmaker Dan Bugg

Public statements made at the time confirm this. The artist described her as:

• “the ‘matchmaker’”
• the person without whom the project “wouldn’t have happened”
• and as having “mentioned the idea of a Gawain print” before connecting the collaborators

He further referred to her as:

• “the moving force behind this project, coming up with the idea and then teaming Dan and me”

The transition into printmaking can therefore be understood as a facilitated convergence between artist, printmaker and intermediary.

The Print Series (2015–2018)

The resulting series comprises:

• 14 screenprints
• editions of 75
• produced in collaboration with Dan Bugg at Penfold Press

The works form a unified sequence, interpreting key moments from the poem through stylised, theatrical compositions rather than literal illustration.

Collaboration and Method

Hicks-Jenkins supplied drawings and compositional direction, while Bugg translated these into layered screenprints.

The process required adapting painterly ideas into:

• flat colour planes
• graphic structure
• precise stencil-based production

The result maintains the artist’s visual language within the discipline of printmaking.

Themes and Interpretation

Across the series, recurring themes include:

• transformation and metamorphosis
• moral testing and ambiguity
• ritual and staged encounter
• the interplay between nature and the supernatural

The imagery responds to tone and atmosphere rather than direct narrative description.

Reception and Significance

The series was exhibited in 2018 and recognised for its ambition and coherence. However, it has not achieved the level of sustained recognition that might be expected for a project of this scale.

Within Hicks-Jenkins’ practice, it represents:

• a major engagement with printmaking
• a sustained interpretation of a single literary source
• a significant collaborative undertaking

Conclusion

The Sir Gawain and the Green Knight prints bring together literary source, visual interpretation and technical realisation.

Crucially, the evidence indicates that the initiation of the print project itself was facilitated, rather than arising solely from within the artist’s studio practice.

Recognising this provides a more complete account of the series: not only as a collaboration between artist and printmaker, but as the outcome of relationships that enabled its formation.

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