David Harsent

Writer

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Books

Associate Agent : Olivia Martin

Film, TV & Theatre

Associate Agent : Olivia Martin

Books

David Harsent is a critically acclaimed poet, novelist and librettist. Under the pseudonyms David Lawrence, David Pascoe and Jack Curtis he has published thrillers that have been translated into fifteen languages, and has worked extensively for the BBC and ITV (see David Lawrence). His most recent collection of poems, FIRE SONGS, won the 2015 T.S. Elliot Poetry Prize.

LEGION was the winner of the Forward Prize for poetry in 2005, and the following volume, NIGHT was shortlisted for the Costa Book Awards, the TS Eliot prize, and was nominated for the Forward Prize.  His work in music theatre includes commissions from the Royal Opera House and the Proms and performances at the South Bank Centre and Carnegie Hall.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, an Honorary Research Fellow at Royal Holloway University and, in 2008, was appointed Visiting Professor at Hallam University, Sheffield.

FIRE SONGS, Faber, 2014

Reviews for NIGHT

'Truly significant poets write like no one else, and David Harsent is both sui generis and unsurpassed. Taking over where his Forward Prize-winning book Legion left off, Night conducts an examination of the human psyche that is unique in both the unflinchingness of its gaze, and the narrative metaphors it uses to explore dream-life, terror and hidden impulse... Working, as poetry should, on every level at once, Harsent's verse is also unified by rhyme and its variants — including alliterative chime — which fill the mouth with pleasure and beg to be read aloud... At once disciplined and wild at heart, as linguistically rich as it is visceral, Night is Harsent’s finest book to date.'  Independent

'Harsent has a dreamer’s eye and an unerring ear... “Elsewhere”, the long poem that ends the collection, is [his] most dazzling achievement... This poem deepens the theme of dispossession, the days and nights of reckoning, the consideration of what it might mean to lose everything. Harsent alludes to loss in so many ways but his poems are treasures — all gain.' Observer

'It’s an unmistakeable, endlessly adaptable style, able to hit every tone on the scale, from leer to lament... Pain and loss light us through the darkness, Harsent insists, as well as contributing to it. The light of these poems is essential.'  Guardian

Poetry

Publication DetailsNotes

A BROKEN MAN IN FLOWER

2023

Bloodaxe Books

Yannis Ritsos (1909–90) is generally considered to be – along with Cavafy, Seferis and Elytis – one of the most significant Greek poets of the last century.

His life was, to say the least, troubled. From an early age, he was dogged by the tuberculosis that killed his mother and brother. His father and sister suffered breakdowns and spent time in institutions.

His poem Epitaphios (1936), a lament for a young man shot dead by the police during a tobacco workers’ strike, was publicly burned by the Metaxas regime and his books banned. During the post-World War Two civil war – because he sided with the left – Ritsos was arrested and sent to prison camps. Then, in 1967, when the Papadopoulos military junta took control of the country, he was again arrested, again his books were banned, again he spent time in prison camps, before being confined to house arrest on the island of Samos.

The violence and tyranny of dictatorship is often fractured by the surreal. In the poems collected here, written by Ritsos while in prison and under house arrest, that fracture in perception is a wound.

A Broken Man in Flower has an introduction by John Kittmer and includes the text of an illuminating and vivid letter sent by Ritsos to his publisher in 1969 while under house arrest on Samos describing his life – and the lives of Greeks – under the repressive rule of the Colonels.

David Harsent’s thirteen collections have won a number of awards, including the Forward Prize, the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Griffin International Prize. He is also a librettist: his collaborations with composers, chiefly with Harrison Birtwistle, have been performed at major venues worldwide.

SALT

2017

Faber

Written as David Harsent.

FIRE SONGS

2014

Faber

*Winner of T.S. Eliot Poetry Prize (2015).
Written as David Harsent.

IN SECRET - VERSIONS OF YANNIS RITSOS

2012

Enitharnon

Written as David Harsent.

NIGHT

2011

Faber

Shortlisted for the Costa Book Prize (poetry), the T.S. Eliot Prize, and nominated for the Forward Proze 2011.
Written as David Harsent.

SELECTED POEMS 1969-2005

2007

Faber

In an illustrious career, David Harsent has published eight collections of poetry, from "A Violent County" in 1969 to "Legion", winner of the Forward Prize in 2005. This selection, made by the author himself, draws upon the full arc of his career and offers an outstanding concentration of, and introduction to, the full range and powers of this distinguished poet.

LEGION

2005

Faber

Forward Prize Winner 2005/6
Shortlisted for T.S. Eliot Prize
Shortlisted for Whitbread Award
Written as David Harsent.

MARRIAGE

2002

Faber

Shortlisted for T.S. Eliot Prize.
Shortlisted for the Forward Prize.
Written as David Harsent.

A BIRD'S IDEA OF FLIGHT

1998

Faber

Shortlisted for the Forward Prize
Written as David Harsent.

SPRINTING FROM THE GRAVEYARD

1997

OUP

Translation from original by Goran Simic.
Written as David Harsent.

THE SORROW OF SARAJEVO

1996

Refer to United Agents

Translation from originals by Goran Simic.
Written as David Harsent.

NEWS FROM THE FRONT

1993

OUP

Written as David Harsent.

SELECTED POEMS

1989

OUP

Written as David Harsent.

MISTER PUNCH

1984

OUP

Written as David Harsent.

DREAMS OF THE DEAD

1977

OUP

Geoffry Faber Memorial Award Winner
Arts Council Bursary
Written as David Harsent.

AFTER DARK

1973

OUP

Written as David Harsent.

TRUCE

1973

Refer to United Agents

Written as David Harsent.

A VIOLENT COUNTRY

1968

OUP

Arts Council Bursary
Written as David Harsent.

Fiction

Publication DetailsNotes

DOWN INTO DARKNESS

2007

Michael Joseph

Written as David Lawrence.
The naked body of a young woman is found hanging from a tree on a London roadside. Scrawled across her back, the words 'DIRTY GIRL'. Detective Sergeant Stella Mooney and the AMIP 5 squad are faced with a murder as baffling as it is chilling. With no means to identify the victim and no apparent motive, the case is blocked, until...A man is found on a bench by the river, his throat cut back to the vertebrae. And, as before, the killer has left a trademark comment: 'FILTHY COWARD'. Stella and her team can see there's a connection: but what? One victim is a young girl - maybe one of the hookers who work the Strip; the other a researcher for a prominent and controversial MP. More evidence is needed. And soon enough, it comes; another death, another message...

COLD KILL

2005

Michael Joseph

A Stella Mooney Crime Novel.
Written as David Lawrence.

NOTHING LIKE THE NIGHT

2005

Michael Joseph

A Stella Mooney Crime Novel.
Written as David Lawrence.

THE DEAD SIT AROUND IN A RING

2004

Michael Joseph

A Stella Mooney Crime Novel.
Written as David Lawrence.

FOX ON THE RUN

1999

Orion

Written as David Pascoe.

THE CONFESSOR

1997

Orion

Written as Jack Curtis.

MIRRORS KILL

1996

Bantam

Written as Jack Curtis.

CONJURE ME

1992

Bantam

Written as Jack Curtis.

SONS OF THE MORNING

1992

Bantam

Written as Jack Curtis.

GLORY

1989

Bantam

Written as Jack Curtis.

CROWS' PARLIAMENT

1988

Bantam

Written as Jack Curtis.

Other

Publication DetailsNotes

ANOTHER ROUND AT THE PILLARS: A FESTSCHRIFT FOR IAN HAMILTON (ed.)

1999

Refer to United Agents

Written as David Harsent.

Gawain

1991

Refer to United Agents

Libretto
Written as David Harsent.

FROM AN INLAND SEA

1986

Viking

Novel
Written as David Harsent.

Film, TV & Theatre

David Harsent is a critically acclaimed poet, novelist and librettist. Under the pseudonyms David Lawrence, David Pascoe and Jack Curtis he has published thrillers that have been translated into fifteen languages, and has worked extensively for the BBC and ITV (see David Lawrence).

LEGION was the winner of the Forward Prize for poetry in 2005, and his current volume, NIGHT has been shortlisted for the Costa Book Awards, the TS Eliot prize, and was nominated for the Forward Prize.  His work in music theatre includes commissions from the Royal Opera House and the Proms and performances at the South Bank Centre and Carnegie Hall.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, an Honorary Research Fellow at Royal Holloway University and, in 2008, was appointed Visiting Professor at Hallam University, Sheffield.

NIGHT, Faber,  2011

Currently shortlisted for the Costa Book Awards 2011

Currently shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize

Shortlisted for the Forward Prize 2011

'Truly significant poets write like no one else, and David Harsent is both sui generis and unsurpassed. Taking over where his Forward Prize-winning book Legion left off, Night conducts an examination of the human psyche that is unique in both the unflinchingness of its gaze, and the narrative metaphors it uses to explore dream-life, terror and hidden impulse... Working, as poetry should, on every level at once, Harsent's verse is also unified by rhyme and its variants — including alliterative chime — which fill the mouth with pleasure and beg to be read aloud... At once disciplined and wild at heart, as linguistically rich as it is visceral, Night is Harsent’s finest book to date.'  Independent

'Harsent has a dreamer’s eye and an unerring ear... “Elsewhere”, the long poem that ends the collection, is [his] most dazzling achievement... This poem deepens the theme of dispossession, the days and nights of reckoning, the consideration of what it might mean to lose everything. Harsent alludes to loss in so many ways but his poems are treasures — all gain.' Observer

'It’s an unmistakeable, endlessly adaptable style, able to hit every tone on the scale, from leer to lament... Pain and loss light us through the darkness, Harsent insists, as well as contributing to it. The light of these poems is essential.'  Guardian

Opera

ProductionCompanyNotes

THE LOCKED ROOM

Music Theatre Wales

Music by Huw Watkins. To be performed at the Edinburgh International Festival 2012

THE YELLOW WALLPAPER

Chester Music

Music by Simon Holt. To be performed in Cardiff, April the 20th, 2012

THE CORRIDOR

Aldeburgh Music

Music by Harrison Birtwistle. Aldeburgh Festival 2009, Bregenz Festival 2009

CRIME FICTION

Music Theatre Wales

Music by Huw Watkins. Libretto for a short opera.

MINOTAUR

Royal Opera House

Music by Harrison Birtwistle. Libretto for an opera.

WHEN SHE DIED

Kammeroper, Vienna / Channel 4

Music by Jonathan Dove

THE RING DANCE OF THE NAZARENE

BBC/ Dutch Radio

Music by Harrison Birtwistle. First performance Conertgebouw, Amsterdam. Promenade Concert in 2004.

THE WOMAN AND THE HARE

The Nash Ensemble

Music by Harrison Birtwistle. Song cycle. Grammy Nom

GAWAIN

Royal Opera House

Music by Harrison Birtwistle. Libretto for an opera. First performance May 1991. Revivals in 1994 and 2000.

THE HOOP OF THE WORLD

Music by Alan Lawrence. Libretto for an opera. Score in preparation.

SERENADE THE SILKIE

Prussia Cove Festival 1994

Music by Julian Grant.

Television

ProductionCompanyNotes

GARROW'S LAW

2011

Twenty Twenty / BBC1

Series 3, episode 2
Credited as David Lawrence.

EASTENDERS

2011

BBC / BBC1

2 X 30' minute episodes
Credited as David Lawrence.

MIDSOMER MURDERS XIV - The Sleeper Under the Hill

2011

Bentley / ITV1

Credited as David Lawrence.

HOLBY CITY

2010

BBC / BBC1

11 x 60' minutes
Credited as David Lawrence.

MIDSOMER MURDERS XII - Blood on the Saddle

2009

Bentley Productions / ITV

Credited as David Lawrence.

THE BILL

2009

Talkback Thames / ITV

5 x 60', including final episodes 'Respect' parts I & II.
Credited as David Lawrence.

MIDSOMER MURDERS XI - Talking to the Dead

2008

Bentley / ITV

Credited as David Lawrence.

BLUE MURDER

2008

ITV Productions

Credited as David Lawrence.

MIDSOMER MURDERS X - Blood Wedding

2007

Bentley Productions / ITV

Credited as David Lawrence.

MIDSOMER MURDERS - IX - Death in Chorus

2006

Bentley Productions / ITV

Credited as David Lawrence.

MURDER ME - 'Twisted Tales' series

BBC3

Credited as David Lawrence.

WHEN SHE DIED

Tiger Aspect / Channel 4

Opera with Jonathan Dove.

DIRTY WORK

Alomo / BBC1

Credited as David Lawrence.

GOODNIGHT SWEETHEART

Alomo / BBC1

Series 4, 5 & 6; Nine Episodes.
Credited as David Lawrence.

BIRDS OF A FEATHER

Alomo / BBC1

Two episodes.
Credited as David Lawrence.

NOAH'S ARK

Whitehall Productions / Carlton

Series Two, 3 episodes.
Credited as David Lawrence.

SHINE ON HARVEY MOON

Alomo / BBC1

Three episodes.
Credited as David Lawrence.

LOVE HURTS

Alomo / BBC1

Series 1, 2 & 3: Ten Episodes.
Credited as David Lawrence.

A CLASS ACT

Cinema Verity / ITV

Two episodes.
Credited as David Lawrence.