Kicking the Pricks: The Last of England
by Derek Jarman
with Keith Collins, James Norton, Richard Scott & Declan Wiffen
Originally published in 1987, and out of print for many years, Kicking the Pricks is a key work in Derek Jarman’s oeuvre, documenting the making of one of his most important and politically-charged films, The Last of England.
Featuring diary entries, interviews and notes from the script of the film alongside writing about his childhood, his father, the process through which he came to terms with his sexuality, his early work as a painter and designer, and his debut as a film director, it is one of Jarman’s most radical publications, reflecting unsparingly on what he saw as the corruption of the cinema industry, the moral and personal consequences of AIDS, and Thatcher’s Britain.
This expanded edition features numerous archive photographs, a preface by Jarman’s companion the late Keith Collins, a new suite of poems by Richard Scott, and an extended essay by Jarman scholar Declan Wiffen. It also includes the first-ever publication of an interview with Jarman from 1988, conducted and contextualised by film producer and researcher James Norton.
‘Classic Jarman, full of life, love and anger.’
‘Kicking the Pricks is a heated masterpiece of atmosphere, resistance and insight. And, at its core, is constantly exploring and expounding what it means to be utterly alive, creative and, crucially, constantly creating — irrespective of governmental, societal and bodily forces.’
Formed in 2016 to publish A Sparrow’s Journey, House Sparrow Press is, in the best and multiple senses of the word (it is hoped) an ‘occasional’ venture. Based in Hackney, London, it seeks to publish creatively committed, collaborative works both at a time that is relevant and for reasons that feel compelling. It is drawn to manuscripts of hybridity, titles that might elude conventional publication over concerns of form or scale. It also believes in a modesty of style (but never of ambition) and a fecundity of ideas. Its moniker (drawn from its first venture) celebrates a creature that was once ubiquitous and yet is now threatened. The idea of a bird inhabiting and inspiring a place of residence also feels resonant. This is what the best books do too. There are wings at work here. In short, Emily Dickinson was right (again) when she observed that ‘hope is the thing with feathers’.
House Sparrow Press comprises Jess Chandler (Publisher and Editor) and Gareth Evans (Editor).