New Light on Tony Harrison

Celebrating the 80th birthday of prizewinning British poet Tony Harrison, and with his full endorsement, this volume brings together a dazzling array of practising poets, playwrights, specialists in Classics, theatre, translation studies, English and world literature, and professionals in media (from radio and newspapers to TV and film) where Harrison’s extensive work has been least researched.

These wide-ranging perspectives open up new approaches to the understanding of the work of one of our most important poets. In addition to its overviews of Harrison's well-known works, this book focuses on areas of his oeuvre that have previously been little explored:(1) his more recent poems; (2) the continuation of his relationship with ancient theatre after the landmark Oresteia and Trackers of the 1980s, his evolving dramatic relationship with Euripides, and with French authors (Hugo, Molière, Racine); (3) his international work including the profound contribution made to his work by his periods of residence abroad, in Africa, North America, Moscow and Prague, and his popularity in French and Italian translation; (4) his extensive body of poems written for film, television and radio.