Book Of Matches is a poetry book written by Simon Armitage

Simon Armitage

Simon Armitage CBE is a British poet, playwright, and novelist.-Life and career:Simon Armitage was born in Marsden, West Yorkshire. Armitage first studied at Colne Valley High School, Linthwaite, Huddersfield and went on to study geography at Portsmouth Polytechnic...

. It was first published in 1993 by Faber and Faber

Faber and Faber

Faber and Faber Limited, often abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in the UK, notable in particular for publishing a great deal of poetry and for its former editor T. S. Eliot. Faber has a rich tradition of publishing a wide range of fiction, non fiction, drama, film and music...

. Several poems featured in the book are studied as part of the GCSE English Literature examination in the UK.

The Book

The Book Of Matches is written in three sections.

The first Book of Matches is made up of 30 sonnets, each intended to be read from the strike of a match until the time it takes for the flame to burn out (approx. 20 seconds).

The second section; 'Becoming of Age' is 14 titled poems.

The third is a collection of untitled poems entitled ' Reading The Banns'. The poems in this section are based on the theme of a wedding.

Publisher: Faber and Faber Ltd
Published: 11 October 1993
ISBN 0571169821
Pages: 64pp.