David Harsent
Writer
Agent
Associate Agent
Biography
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. 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
Gallery
Publications
Poetry
Poetry Collection
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.
Written as David Harsent.
*Winner of T.S. Eliot Poetry Prize (2015).
Written as David Harsent.
Written as David Harsent.
Shortlisted for the Costa Book Prize (poetry), the T.S. Eliot Prize, and nominated for the Forward Proze 2011.
Written as David Harsent.
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.
Forward Prize Winner 2005/6
Shortlisted for T.S. Eliot Prize
Shortlisted for Whitbread Award
Written as David Harsent.
Shortlisted for T.S. Eliot Prize.
Shortlisted for the Forward Prize.
Written as David Harsent.
Shortlisted for the Forward Prize
Written as David Harsent.
Translation from original by Goran Simic.
Written as David Harsent.
Translation from originals by Goran Simic.
Written as David Harsent.
Written as David Harsent.
Written as David Harsent.
Written as David Harsent.
Geoffry Faber Memorial Award Winner
Arts Council Bursary
Written as David Harsent.
Written as David Harsent.
Written as David Harsent.
Arts Council Bursary
Written as David Harsent.
Fiction
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…
A Stella Mooney Crime Novel.
Written as David Lawrence.
A Stella Mooney Crime Novel.
Written as David Lawrence.
A Stella Mooney Crime Novel.
Written as David Lawrence.
Written as David Pascoe.
Written as Jack Curtis.
Written as Jack Curtis.
Written as Jack Curtis.
Written as Jack Curtis.
Written as Jack Curtis.
Written as Jack Curtis.
Other
Written as David Harsent.
Libretto
Written as David Harsent.
Novel
Written as David Harsent.
Agent
Associate Agent
Biography
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.
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
Credits
In Development
| Production | Company | Notes |
|---|---|---|
|
THE THIRD SECRET 2011 |
ITV Studios | |
|
BABYLON 2011 |
Zentropa |
Episodes for a series |
| CROWE | ITV Productions |
Treatment for Series |
| DNA | Bentley Productions | |
| WILD JUSTICE | Parallel Films |
A two-part drama |
| WHATEVER | BBC |
Pilot Script |
| THE CUBAN | Film Partners |
Script delivered 2005 |
| SUGAR BAG BLUE | Cutting Edge Films |
Script delivered 2004 |
| THE DEAD SIT ROUND IN A RING |
Adaptation of own novel |
Television
| Production | Company | Notes |
|---|---|---|
|
GARROW'S LAW 2011 |
Twenty Twenty / BBC1 |
Series 3, episode 2 |
|
EASTENDERS 2011 |
BBC / BBC1 |
2 X 30′ minute episodes |
|
MIDSOMER MURDERS XIV - The Sleeper Under the Hill 2011 |
Bentley / ITV1 |
Credited as David Lawrence. |
|
HOLBY CITY 2010 |
BBC / BBC1 |
11 x 60′ minutes |
|
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. |
|
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. |
| BIRDS OF A FEATHER | Alomo / BBC1 |
Two episodes. |
| NOAH'S ARK | Whitehall Productions / Carlton |
Series Two, 3 episodes. |
| SHINE ON HARVEY MOON | Alomo / BBC1 |
Three episodes. |
| LOVE HURTS | Alomo / BBC1 |
Series 1, 2 & 3: Ten Episodes. |
| A CLASS ACT | Cinema Verity / ITV |
Two episodes. |
Opera
| Production | Company | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 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. |
