Over the course of several years, Simon Armitage has written hundreds of poems for various projects, commissions, collaborations and events, which stand outside of his mainstream collections but now form a substantial body of work in their own right. They vary from single poems, such as 'Zodiac T Shirt', written to be performed at the launch of Beck’s Song Reader, to the suite of ten poems about Branwell Brontë written at the time of the writer's bicentenary. Some have been published – such as the Walking Home and Walking Away poems – but the majority has not, and together they cover an eclectic array of subjects including sculpture, the environment, travel, drama, and media.

Sandettie Light Vessel Automatic represents the nature and scale of Armitage's work – it is an important reflection of his public engagement as a poet and the astonishing range of his interests and talents.