Kicking The Pricks - Tapa blanda

In 1986 Derek Jarman started filming THE LAST OF ENGLAND, one of his most original and innovative films. It is also his most personal work the one with the strongest autobiographical content. Shortly after the filming began, Derek Jarman started work on this book which contains diary entries, interviews and notes from the script. Jarman writes of his extraordianary childhood and his kleptomaniac father; the process through which he came to terms with his sexuality; his early work as painter and designer; and finally his debut as a film director. Throughout, however, the reader will follow Jarman at his most serious as he writes of the corruption of the cinema industry, of the moral and personal consequences of the AIDS virus, and his perception of the down side of Thatcher's Britain.

Derek Jarman's creativity spanned decades and genres - painter, theatre designer, director, film maker, writer and gardener.

From his first one-man show at the Lisson Gallery in 1969; set designs and costumes for the theatre and ballet (Jazz Calendar with Frederick Ashton at Covent Garden, Don Giovanni with John Gielgud at the London Coliseum, The Rake's Progress with Ken Russell at Teatro Communale, Florence); production design for Ken Russell's films The Devils and Savage Messiah; through his own films in super-8 before working on features: Sebastine (1976), Jubilee (1978), The Tempest (1979), The Angelic Conversation (1985), Caravaggio (1986), The Last of England (1987), War Requiem (1989), The Garden (1990), Edward II (1991), Wittgenstein (1993), and Blue (1993); to directing pop-videos and live performances for Pet Shop Boys and Suede.

His paintings - for which he was a Turner Prize nominee in 1986 - have been exhibited world-wide.

His garden surrounding the fisherman's cottage in Dungeness where he spent the last years of his life remains a site of awe and pilgrimage to fans and newcomers to Jarman's singular vision.

His publications include: Dancing Ledge (1984), Kicking the Pricks (1987), Modern Nature (1991), At Your Own Risk (1992), Chroma (1994), Derek Jarman's Garden (1995).