Chairperson: Paul Perry

‘An edgy, witty, marvelously artful “good read”.’ The Guardian on Tony Harrison’s  Selected Poems

Tony Harrison has written for the theatre, the opera house, television, cinema and the printed page. He was even The Guardian’s poetic war correspondent during the Bosnian conflict of 1992-94. Yet for the Whitbread-winning Yorkshireman it all boils down to the same thing: ‘Poetry is all I write … all these activities are part of the same quest for a public poetry.’

Since the TV adaptation of his controversial narrative poem V made front-page headlines in 1987, Tony Harrison has consistently pursued this goal – to give voice to the unheard and inarticulate through his work. Unsurprisingly, his poetry juxtaposes the big picture with the everyday, addressing the political and the personal in subjects ranging from family and home to The Gulf War and the fall of Communism.

Harrison is a ‘peerless poetic rhythmist’ (The Independent) and his live performances lift the poetry from the page into an exhilarating new realm. Join him as he reads from and discusses a personal selection of his own work.