Tony Harrison

Tony William Harrison (30 April 1937 – 26 September 2025) was an English poet, translator and playwright. He was one of Britain's foremost verse writers and many of his works have been performed at the Royal National Theatre. He is noted for controversial works such as the poem "V", as well as his versions of dramatic works such as the tragedies Oresteia and Lysistrata from ancient Greek, Molière's The Misanthrope from French, and The Mysteries from Middle English.

Harrison was also noted for his outspoken views, particularly those on the Iraq War. In 2015, he was honoured with the David Cohen Prize in recognition of his body of work and in 2016, he was awarded the Template:Ill in Rome.

Biography

Early life and education

Tony William Harrison was born on 30 April 1937 into a working-class family in Beeston, Leeds.<ref name="Head2006" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was the elder child of baker Harry Ashton and homemaker Florrie (née Wilkinson-Horner) Harrison.<ref name="dtel"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He was a scholarship pupil at Leeds Grammar School, then read Classics at the University of Leeds.<ref name="Head2006">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Rosenthal2007">Template:Cite book</ref>

From 1962 to 1966, he lectured in English at Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Nigeria. He then taught at Charles University in Czechoslovakia before returning to England in 1967.<ref name="bloodaxe-obit">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="gdn-obit">Template:Cite news</ref>

Career

Harrison published his first book of poetry, The Loiners, in 1970;<ref name="bloodaxe-obit"/> Loiner is an informal demonym, of unclear origin, for people from Leeds.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Claire Armitstead, in his obituary for The Guardian, describes the collection as "exuberantly rude".<ref name="gdn-obit"/>

The Mysteries, his adaptation of the York and Wakefield cycles of English medieval mystery plays, was first performed in 1985 by the Royal National Theatre.<ref name="Head2006"/> Interviewed by Melvyn Bragg for BBC Television in 2012, Harrison said: "It was only when I did the Mystery Plays and got Northern actors doing verse, that I felt that I was reclaiming the energy of classical verse in the voices that it was created for."<ref>"Melvyn Bragg on Class and Culture: Episode 2. Template:Webarchive. BBC2. 2 March 2012.</ref>

One of his best-known works is the long poem "V" (1985), written during the miners' strike of 1984–85, and describing a trip to see his parents' grave in Holbeck Cemetery in Beeston, Leeds, "now littered with beer cans and vandalised by obscene graffiti".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The title has several possible interpretations: victory, versus, verse, insulting V sign, etc. Proposals to screen a filmed version of "V" by Channel 4 in October 1987 drew howls of outrage from the tabloid press, some broadsheet journalists, and Members of Parliament (MPs), apparently concerned about the effects its "torrents of obscene language" and "streams of four-letter filth" would have on the nation's youth.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Indeed, an early day motion entitled "Television Obscenity" was proposed on 27 October 1987 by a group of Conservative MPs, who condemned Channel 4 and the Independent Broadcasting Authority.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The motion was opposed only by MP Norman Buchan, who suggested that fellow members had either failed to read or failed to understand the poem. The broadcast went ahead and, after widespread press coverage, the uproar subsided. MP Gerald Howarth said that Harrison was "Probably another bolshie poet wishing to impose his frustrations on the rest of us". When told of this, Harrison retorted that Howarth was "Probably another idiot MP wishing to impose his intellectual limitations on the rest of us".<ref name="The Independent">Template:Cite news</ref>

Yan Tan Tethera, which premiered on 7 August 1986, at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, is a chamber opera (subtitled A Mechanical Pastoral) by the English composer Harrison Birtwistle with a libretto by Harrison. It is based on a supernatural folk tale about two shepherds, their sheep, and the Devil. The title comes from a traditional way of counting sheep. In 2014, it was revived at The Barbican as part of a series celebrating the composer's 80th birthday.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Prometheus is a 1998 film-poem, starring Micheal Feast in the role of Hermes, which examines the political and social issues connected to the fall of the working class in England, amidst the more general phenomenon of the collapse of socialism in Eastern Europe, using the myth of Prometheus as a metaphor for the struggles of the working class and the devastation brought on by political conflict and unfettered industrialisation. It was broadcast on Channel 4 and was also shown at the Locarno Film Festival. It was used by Harrison to highlight the plight of the workers both in Europe and in Britain. His film-poem begins at a post-industrialist wasteland in Yorkshire brought upon by the politics of confrontation between the miners and the government of Margaret Thatcher.<ref name="Edith Hall">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Morales2007">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Beats of the heart">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Prometheus (1998)">Template:Cite news</ref>

His play Fram received its premiere at the Olivier auditorium of the Royal National Theatre, London, on 10 April 2008. It uses the story of the Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen's attempt to reach the North Pole, and his subsequent campaign to relieve the famine in the Soviet Union, to explore the role of art in a world beset by seemingly greater issues.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The production was directed by Harrison and Bob Crowley and its cast included Jasper Britton as Nansen, Mark Addy as Hjalmar Johansen, Siân Thomas as Sybil Thorndike and Jeff Rawle as Gilbert Murray.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The production received generally unenthusiastic reviews.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Harrison is also noted for his versions of dramatic works, such as the tragedies Oresteia and Lysistrata from ancient Greek, Molière's The Misanthrope from French, and The Mysteries from Middle English.<ref name="Head2006"/> He was also noted for his outspoken views, particularly those on the Iraq War.<ref name="Head2006"/><ref name="whos who">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="cold coming">Template:Cite book</ref> In 2015, he was honoured with the David Cohen Prize in recognition of his body of work.<ref>McAloon, Jonathan (26 February 2015). Poet Tony Harrison wins David Cohen Prize for Literature 2015. The Telegraph.</ref> In 2016, he was awarded the Template:Ill in Rome.<ref>Template:Cite press release</ref>

In 2016, Harrison was interviewed by Ian McMillan for the BBC Radio 4 poetry programme The Verb.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life and death

Harrison was married to Rosemarie Crossfield from 1960 until their divorce in the 1970s. They had two children, Jane, born in Leeds, and Max, born while the family was living in Nigeria.<ref name="gdn-obit" /> He remarried, in 1984, to the Canadian soprano Teresa Stratas. After his second marriage ended in divorce, his partner in later life was the actress Siân Thomas, who survives him.<ref name=gdn-obit/><ref name="times" /><ref name="dtel">Template:Cite news</ref>

In the early 1980s, Harrison spent time living in New York and Florida, before settling permanently in Newcastle upon Tyne.<ref name="bloodaxe-obit" /> He died in Newcastle on 26 September 2025, at the age of 88.<ref name="times">Template:Cite web</ref> He had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease some years before.<ref name="bloodaxe-obit"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Reception and legacy

Harrison was one of Britain's foremost verse writers and many of his works have been performed at the Royal National Theatre.<ref name="Head2006"/>

Richard Eyre calls his 1990 play The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus "among the five most imaginative pieces of drama in the 90s". Jocelyn Herbert, famous designer of the British theatrical scene, comments that Harrison is aware of the dramatic visual impact of his ideas: "The idea of satyrs jumping out of boxes in Trackers is wonderful for the stage. Some writers just write and have little idea what it will look like, but Tony always knows exactly what he wants."<ref name="The Guardian">Template:Cite news</ref>

Edith Hall wrote that she is convinced Harrison's 1998 film-poem Prometheus is an "artistic reaction to the fall of the British working class" at the end of the twentieth century,<ref name="Edith Hall"/><ref name="Hardwick2003">Template:Cite book</ref> and considers it as "the most important adaptation of classical myth for a radical political purpose for years" and Harrison's "most brilliant artwork, with the possible exception of his stage play The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus".<ref name="Edith Hall"/>

Professor Roger Griffin of the Department of History at Oxford Brookes University, in his paper The palingenetic political community: rethinking the legitimation of totalitarian regimes in inter-war Europe, describes Harrison's film-poem as "magnificent" and suggests that Harrison is trying to tell his audience: "To avoid falling prey to the collective mirage of a new order, to stay wide awake while others succumb to the lethe of the group mind, to resist the gaze of modern Gorgons".<ref name="Griffin">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Following his death on 26 September 2025, his obituary in The Times said, "The 'Bard from Beeston' had not only mastered the cultural heights but had produced a poetry touching people and places few others ever could."<ref name="times"/>

Bibliography

A full bibliography can be found here:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Poetry

• The Loiners (1970)<ref name="The Guardian" />
• From the School of Eloquence and Other Poems (1978)
• Continuous (50 Sonnets from the School of Eloquence and Other Poems) (1981)
• A Kumquat for John Keats (1981)
• V (1985)
• Dramatic Verse, 1973–85 (1985)
• The Gaze of the Gorgon (1992)
• Black Daisies for the Bride (1993)
• The Shadow of Hiroshima and Other Film/Poems (1995)
• The Bright Lights of Sarajevo (1995)
• Laureate's Block and Other Occasional Poems (2000)
• Under the Clock (2005)
• Selected Poems (2006)
• Collected Poems (2007)
• Collected Film Poetry (2007)
• Kumkwat dla Johna Keatsa, in Polish, Bohdan Zadura (trans.), Warszawa: PIW (1990)
• Sztuka i zagłada, in Polish, Bohdan Zadura (trans.), Legnica: Biuro Literackie (1999)

Pamphlets

• Earthworks (1964)
• Newcastle is Peru (1969)
• Bow Down (1977)
• Looking Up (1979)
• A Kumquat for John Keats (1981)
• The Fire Gap (1985)
• Anno Forty Two, Seven New Poems (1987)
• Ten Sonnets from "The School of Eloquence" (1987)
• A Cold Coming (1991)
• A Maybe Day in Kazakhstan (1994)
• Polygons (2017)

Film and television

• The Blue Bird: lyrics for George Cukor film (1976).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Arctic Paradise: verse commentary for film in series The World About Us, producer: Andree Molyneux for BBC Two (1981).
• The Oresteia: translation for National Theatre production with music by Harrison Birtwistle, filmed for Channel Four television (October 1983).
• The Big H: musical drama, producer: Andree Molyneux, for BBC Two (December 1984).
• The Mysteries: adaption of medieval English mystery plays for the Royal National Theatre, produced by Bill Bryden and Derek Bailey, filmed for Channel Four television (December 1985, January 1986).
• Loving Memory four poem-films, producer: Peter Symes for BBC Two.
  • Letters in Rock: (July 1987).
  • Mimmo Perrella Non è Piu: (July 1987).
  • Muffled Bells: (July 1987).
  • Cheating the Void: (August 1987).
• V: poem filmed for television, producer: Richard Eyre for Channel 4 (1987).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• The Blasphemers' Banquet: poem-film, producer: Peter Symes for BBC One (1989).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• The Gaze of the Gorgon: poem-film for television (1992). Examines the politics of conflict in the 20th century using the Gorgon as a metaphor. The imaginary narration of the film is done through the mouth of Jewish poet Heinrich Heine. Located in Corfu the film describes the connection between the Corfu Gorgon at the Artemis Temple of Corfu and Kaiser Wilhelm II.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• Prometheus: television film, also directed by the author (1998).<ref name="Edith Hall"/>

Plays

• Aikin Mata with James Simmons, Nigeria (March 1964). An adaption of Aristophanes's Lysistrata.
• The Misanthrope, National Theatre Company (opened at the Old Vic on 20 February 1973). Adaptation of Molière's Le Misanthrope.
• Phaedra Britannica, National Theatre Company (opened at the Old Vic on 3 September 1975). Adaptation of Racine's Phèdre
• Bow Down (with Harrison Birtwistle), National Theatre (4 July 1977).<ref name="universaledition">Template:Cite web</ref>
• The Common Chorus, (1988). An adaption of Aristophanes's Lysistrata.
• The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus (1990). A hit play.
• Square Rounds, Olivier Stage (1992).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="independent">Template:Cite news</ref>
• The Labourers of Herakles (1995).
• The Prince's Play, National Theatre, London (1996). A translation and adaptation of Victor Hugo's Le roi s'amuse. The play was subsequently published by Faber & Faber.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• Fram, Royal National Theatre (10 April 2008).

Operas

• The Bartered Bride, translation into English of the opera by Bedrich Smetana, first seen at the Metropolitan Opera on 25 October 1978
• Yan Tan Tethera (libretto for Harrison Birtwistle's opera), (1986).<ref name="universaledition2">Template:Cite web</ref>

Works about Harrison and his poetry

• Template:Cite book
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Reviews

• Craig, Cairns (1982), Giving Speech to the Silent, which includes a review of Continuous: 50 Sonnets from The School of Eloquence, in Hearn, Sheila G. (ed.), Cencrastus No. 10, Autumn 1982, pp. 43–44, Template:Issn

Awards and honours

• 1972 Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize (for The Loiners, 1970)<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref>
• 1983 European Poetry Translation Prize (for Aeschylus's The Oresteia, 1981)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• 1982 Whitbread Prize for Poetry (The Gaze of the Gorgon, 1992)<ref name=":0" />
• 1984 Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• 2004 Northern Rock Foundation Writer's Award<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• 2007 Wilfred Owen Poetry Award<ref name="wilfredowen">Template:Cite web</ref>
• 2009 PEN Pinter prize, inaugural winner<ref>Flood, Alison (22 September 2009). "Tony Harrison wins inaugural PEN/Pinter prize". The Guardian.</ref>
• 2010 European Prize for Literature<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• 2015 David Cohen Prize<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• 2016 Template:Ill<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

See also

• List of British playwrights since 1950

External links

• Tony Harrison at the Bloodaxe Books website
• Template:British council; Template:Webarchive
• Tony Harrison at the Faber & Faber website
• 1999 profile of Harrison by The New Statesman
• "Beats of the Heart"—Interview with The Guardian, March 2007
• Archival material at Leeds University Library
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