V.

By Tony Harrison

Book Overview

Tony Harrison's v. was written during the Miners' Strike of 1984-85 when he visited his parents' grave in a Leeds cemetery and found it vandalised by obscene graffiti. In the book-length poem, he confronts the foul-mouthed skinhead thug responsible, who becomes a foil for his own anger and alienation. The political and media reaction to v. would make a book in itself. This is that book. As well as Tony Harrison's poem and Graham Sykes's photographs, this new edition of v. includes press articles, letters, reviews, a defence of the poem and film by director Richard Eyre, and a transcript of the phone calls logged by Channel Four on the night of the broadcast. Channel Four's film of v. won the Royal Television Society's Best Original Programme Award. The Star: 'A plan to televise a poem packed with obscenities caused outrage last night. ITV chiefs intend to screen a reading of Tony Harrison's verse v. which is full of four-letter words.' Daily Mail: A torrent of four-letter filth... the most explicitly sexual language yet beamed into the nation's living rooms... the crudest, most offensive word is used 17 times.' Gerald Howarth, MP: 'It is full of expletives and I can't see that it serves any artistic purpose whatsoever.' Mary Whitehouse: 'This work of singular nastiness.' Sir Harold Pinter: 'The criticism against the poem has been offensive, juvenile and, of course, philistine. It should certainly be broadcast.' Sir Richard Eyre: 'If I had the slightest influence over educational policy in this country, I'd see that v. was a set text in every school in the country, but of course if we lived in that sort of country, the poem wouldn't have needed to be written.'

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0906427975
• ISBN13: 9780906427972
• Release Date: May 1989
• Publisher: Bloodaxe Books
• Length: 40 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.4" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Wonderful contemporary poems in traditional forms

Harrison's niche is combining contemporary language (including obscenities and slang) with traditional poetic forms. Working class Leeds meets classicism. Harrison does this beautifully, his many fine moments well outweighing his occasional metrical or rhyme difficulties. The long title poem is a painful meditation on the speaker's self and heritage occasioned by finding his parents'gravestones defaced by obscene graffiti. Other poems extent and enrich Harrison's reflections on his working class background and painful relationship with his father. There are other powerful, moving and memorable poems in this slim volume which, dear reader, you should have if you enjoy traditional forms and devices, all in the service of a keen mind and open heart. And hunt down his Selected Poems while it's still in print.