Sat at a poetry reading in church in Laugharne, the small town in South Wales famous for being the home of Dylan Thomas, it's hard to think of a writer better suited to the bill than Simon Armitage.

After all, like Thomas, Armitage knows a thing or two about being synonymous in people's minds with a particular part of rural England.

His deep association with West Yorkshire is betrayed not only by his poetry (and accent) but his decision, as one of Britain's most successful modern poets, to stay there, living and writing in the environment that first inspired him.

Here HuffPost Culture talks to multi-award winner about the importance of geography to British writers, the state of the modern day poetry, and who, in the spirit of Thomas, he'd most like to share a beer with.

Watch a video report from Laugharne Festival.