IT was a crime that shocked a nation.

Sophie Lancaster, 20, was attacked and beaten by a gang of youths in a park because she chose to dress as a Goth, and died days later.

Now Huddersfield poet Simon Armitage has brought out a book based on the tragic murder and on moving interviews with Sophie’s mum, Sylvia.

Black Roses: The Killing of Sophie Lancaster is due out early next month.

It follows an acclaimed radio broadcast by Armitage last year in which Sophie’s story is told through a series of poignant poems written by the award-winning poet alongside her mother remembering her daughter’s shortened life.

The show won BBC Radio Best Speech Programme of 2011 and was shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award for Poetry.

But Armitage admits it was a very emotional experience.

He said: “It was a crime which attracted a tremendous amount of media attention and it is a very emotive case.

“When you write you do have to become detached to some extent, no matter what the subject, and you need to be dispassionate to come up with something that works without too much sentiment.

“You almost have to be cold about it, but it has to be said that Sylvia’s interview was a very brave thing to do.

“The book is based on my interview with her and with the poem about Sophie. It looks at her life and beliefs and part of it focuses on her lying in a hospital bed after the attack

“The case focussed attention on hate crime and the need for legislation to recognise that.

“It was my idea. I had done quite a bit of documentary work with TV, but I could not get anyone to support this idea. Then I contacted Sylvia at the time of the trial and she agreed to do the interview.

“The radio broadcast had such an unprecedented response. Of all the projects I have done, this one generated the biggest response.”

Sophie, who was born in Bacup, Lancashire, was attacked alongside her boyfriend Robert Maltby in Stubbylee Park in her home town.

Five teenage boys were later jailed, two of them for murder and the others for grievous bodily harm.

The couple’s family described Sophie and her boyfriend as Goths, saying they were both intelligent, sensitive kids. They were not the sort of people to get into trouble, but had problems in the past because they stood out.

The killing prompted the setting up of the Sophie Lancaster Foundation, a charity opposed to all forms of hate crime and discrimination.

A third of all the profits from the sale of Armitage’s book will go to the charity.

An excerpt from the poem

I didn’t do sport.

I didn’t do meat.

Don’t ask me to wear that dress:

I shan’t.

Why ask me to toe the line,

I can’t.

I was slight or small

but never petite,

and nobody’s fool;

no Barbie doll;

no girlie girl.

I was lean and sharp,

not an ounce of fat

on my thoughts or my limbs.

In my difficult teens

I was strange, I was odd,

– aren’t we all –

there was something different down at the core.

Boy bands and pop tarts left me cold,

let’s say

that I marched to the beat

of a different drum,

sang another tune,

wandered at will

through the market stalls

humming protest songs.