Yorkshire-born Simon Armitage is a poet, playwright and novelist who published his first collection of poems, Zoom!, in 1989. He was shortlisted for the Whitbread poetry prize for Kid, The Dead Sea Poems and CloudCuckooLand, and has four times made the shortlist for the TS Eliot prize for poetry. In 2003, he received an Ivor Novello award for his song-lyrics in the Bafta-winning Channel 4 film Feltham Sings and, in 2007, his translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was selected as a book of the year by both the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. In addition to his regular work as a broadcaster and presenter, Armitage is also the author of five stage plays, two novels (Little Green Man and The White Stuff) and more than a dozen TV films. His latest play The Last Days of Troy is being performed at the Royal Exchange (until 7 June) and at Shakespeare's Globe (from 10 June).

Restaurant: Porthmeor Beach Cafe in St Ives, Cornwall

There are some really fantastic places to eat in St Ives. What I like about the the Porthmeor Beach Cafe is that they've built open-faced bunkers, so it's like sitting outside – which is impossible to do in Britain – but with all the comforts of sitting inside. There's a little heater in there and they bring you a blanket to put over you in the evening. It's very laid-back. They do quite a lot of tapas and a nice Thai prawn curry too. Plus you can ask for chips instead of rice, as my dad found out on our last holiday. Porthmeor beach is sort of the sunset beach in St Ives. To sit there with the backdrop of the sea and the bay… it's pretty special.

Magazine: The New Yorker

I think the New Yorker is probably the best magazine in the world. It's stylish, funny, controversial – it just has a real range of articles. Where else are you going to find something on the prison system in Baltimore, a piece about the basketball player Kobe Bryant, a piece on human sacrifice in ancient Greece, a piece about growing old... They're long-form, but it's not like having to commit to a novella. I even read the pretentious restaurant reviews of places that I'm never going to go! It's got that slight whiff of exoticism about it. I like that you've absolutely no idea what's coming next week and you've no idea what's over the next page either.

App: Spotify

I still like my vinyl and CDs. Increasingly, however, I've noticed that when I switch the computer on, I'll automatically open Spotify as well. I have it on my phone and my iPad too. I've no idea how it works, financially. I don't pay for it and, OK, you get an advert every few records, but you can stack and file and compile more music than you probably could on iTunes. It's like having the vault of all music – which can be a bit overwhelming sometimes. It's a great way to listen to new music and I like just following the links for "You liked this, you might like that". I've discovered some bands that I really love who I can't imagine I would have heard of otherwise.

Sport: the World Cup

The World Cup is a drama that I always look forward to. There have been times, in the past, when I've watched pretty much every match. I even like the fact that the commentators are already dusting off their cliches. The last time England played in a major tournament I did actually go and put an England shirt on. I came downstairs in it and we all had a good laugh and then they lost. The good thing is that there are no expectations with England – I think that has filtered through to even the most passionate, nationalistic, jingoistic commentator. So we can relax on that front and maybe even enjoy it for its comedic value – anything else is just a bonus. I'll say this quietly, but I also enjoy watching the German team. Whether we like it or not, they're very good.

Poetry: I Knew the Bride by Hugo Williams

Williams writes what seem, on the face of it, to be very conversational, straightforward, almost throwaway poems. But it's a style which, on occasions, I have tried to imitate and it's almost impossible. He's got a very rare gift for turning the everyday into something quite breathtaking.They're commonplace, domestic poems but he manages to wring the most out of the details – they're poems that you end up nodding to and agreeing and sympathising with. I think this particular collection has got a lot of heart: there are poems about an illness that he's gone through and about relationships gone wrong. I think he's made himself quite vulnerable. There's one very unexpected poem about Williams putting a drill through his head.

Radio: Tom Ravenscroft on BBC 6 Music

Tom Ravenscroft is John Peel's son and he's like a slightly sarcastic version of his dad. He does a show on BBC 6 Music on Friday night from 7-10pm. It's quite an eclectic choice: he plays reggae, dub, dubstep, elecronica, rock… Over a few months, I realised that I enjoyed pretty much all of it. I don't remember ever experiencing that with a DJ, apart from in the days of John Peel. I'm never in on a Friday night, or I'm too knackered to engage with anything, but I really like the fact that you can get these shows on iPlayer now. So I listen to it on a Saturday – it's become kind of the soundtrack of Saturday morning in our house. As a listener, you build up a relationship with a DJ and I find Tom Ravenscroft's show almost unmissable.