Kicking the Pricks
The shockingly honest journals of the acclaimed filmmaker and gay rights activist
The clarity with which Derek Jarman offered up his life and the living of it, particularly since the epiphany—I can call it nothing less—of his illness was a genius stroke, not only of provocation, but of grace.
Tilda Swinton
The most engrossing book I’ve read in an age. . . . It offers a back-room view of Jarman’s career as well as his musings on art and film. . . . Jarman is the sort of troublemaking visionary who one day may be compared with Blake.
Time Out London
Moving, poetic, inspirational.
New Musical Express
The rich, raw, kaleidoscopic finale of a personal and artistic statement.
Kirkus
The most engrossing book I’ve read in an age. . . . It offers a backroom view of Jarman’s career as well as his musings on art and film. . . . Jarman is the sort of troublemaking visionary who one day may be compared with Blake.
Library Journal
Derek Jarman was a genius who, like the gay artists he admired, not only lived dangerously (that being queer) but created dangerous art. In this time when artistic cowardice (that being marketability) reigns, one would do well to read Kicking the Pricks.
Lambda Book Report
The clarity with which Derek Jarman offered up his life and the living of it, particularly since the epiphany—I can call it nothing less—of his illness was a genius stroke, not only of provocation, but of grace.
Tilda Swinton
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Related Publications
Derek Jarman’s Angelic Conversations
A comprehensive look at the work of Britain’s most controversial director
At Your Own Risk
A Saint’s Testament
Derek Jarman’s defiant and provocative memoir of his life and times
Smiling in Slow Motion
Part diary, part observation, part memoir—writings from Derek Jarman’s final years
Jubilee
Six Film Scripts
A collection of brilliant, largely unrealized, intensely personal film scripts by Derek Jarman