Kevin Jackson (writer)

Kevin Jackson by Marzena Pogorzaly

Kevin Jackson
Born	(1955-01-03) 3 January 1955 London, England
Occupation	Writer
Nationality	British
Period	1979–
Genre	Criticism, biography, cultural history
Notable works	The Language of Cinema (1998) Humphrey Jennings (2004) Withnail & I (BFI Modern Classics) (2008) Invisible Forms: A Guide to Literary Curiosities (2000)

Kevin Jackson (born 3 January 1955 in London) is an English writer, broadcaster, filmmaker and pataphysician.

He was educated at the Emanuel School, Battersea, and Pembroke College, Cambridge. After teaching in the English Department of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, he joined the BBC, first as a producer in radio and then as a director of short documentaries for television. In 1987 he was recruited to the Arts pages of The Independent. He has been a freelance writer since the early 1990s and is now a regular contributor to BBC radio programmes, including Radio 4's Saturday Review.

Jackson often collaborates on projects in various media: with, among others, the film-maker Kevin Macdonald, with whom he co-produced a Channel 4 documentary on Humphrey Jennings, The Man Who Listened to Britain (2000); with the cartoonist Hunt Emerson, on comic strips about the history of Western occultism for Fortean Times, on two comics inspired by John Ruskin (published by the Ruskin Foundation) and on a book-length version of Dante's Inferno (Knockabout Books, 2102); with the musician and composer Colin Minchin (lyrics for various songs, and the rock opera Bite, first staged in West London, October 2011); and with the songwriter Peter Blegvad (short surreal plays for BBC Radio 3 – eartoons). Jackson also conducted a long biographical interview with Blegvad, published by Atlas Press in September 2011 as The Bleaching Stream. Jackson appears, under his own name, as a semi-fictional character in Iain Sinclair's account of a pedestrian journey around the M25, London Orbital. Worple Press published Jackson's book of interviews with Sinclair, The Verbals in 2002.

He was among the founder members of the London Institute of 'Pataphysics, and holds the Ordre de la Grande Gidouille from the College de Pataphysique in Paris. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Companion of the Guild of St George. From 2009–2011 he was Visiting Professor in English at University College, London.

Select bibliography

As Author

• The Language of Cinema, published by Routledge Press 1998 (ISBN 978-1857542325)
• Invisible Forms: A Guide to Literary Curiosities, published by St Martin's Press 2000 (ISBN 978-0330371155)
• Building the Great Pyramid, Published by Firefly Books 2003 (ISBN 978-1552977217)
• Letters of Introduction, Published by Carcanet Press Ltd 2004 (ISBN 978-1857546552)
• Humphrey Jennings, Published by Picador Press2004 (ISBN 978-0330354387)
• A Ruskin Alphabet, Published by Worple Press 2000 (ISBN 978-0953094721)
• Withnail & I (BFI Modern Classics), 2008 (ISBN 978-1844570355)
• Lawrence of Arabia (BFI Modern Classics), 2007 (ISBN 978-1844571789)
• Fast, 2006 (ISBN 978-1846270291)
• Moose, Published by Reaktion Books 2009 (ISBN 978-1861893963)
• Bite: A Vampire Handbook, Published by Portobello Books Ltd 2010 (ISBN 978-1846272110)
• The Pataphysical Flook, 2007 (ISBN 1-900565-33-1)
• The Worlds of John Ruskin, Published by Pallas Athene Arts 2009 (ISBN 978-1843680444)
• Chronicles of Old London, Published by Museyon Guides 2012 (ISBN 978-0984633432)
• Constellation of Genius, Published by Hutchinson Press 2012 (ISBN 978-0091930974)
• Nosferatu (1922): eine Symphonie des Grauens (BFI Film Classics), published by British Film Institute 2013 (ISBN 978-1844576500)
• Carnal, published by Pallas Athene Arts 2015 (ISBN 978-1843681113)

As editor

• Schrader on Schrader, 2004 (ISBN 978-0571221769)
• The Humphrey Jennings Film Reader, Published by Carcanet Press 2005 (ISBN 978-1857540451)
• The Oxford Book of Money, 1995 (ISBN 978-0192142009)
• The Risk of Being Alive. Dylan Francis (ISBN 0-904274-02-0)
• The Anatomy of Melancholy. (Robert Burton), 2004 (ISBN 978-1857546507)
• Revolutionary Sonnets and Other Poems (Anthony Burgess), 2003 (ISBN 978-1857546163)
• The Book of Hours, 2007 (ISBN 978-0715636084)
• Aussie Dans Le Metro: A Festschrift for John Baxter (privately published: Alces Press, 2009),

As co-editor

• Pataphysics: Definitions and Citations. (with Alastair Brotchie, Stanley Chapman and Thieri Foulc), 2003 (ISBN 1-900565-08-0)

Filmography

Shorts

• Bite: Diary of a Vampire Housewife, 2009
• Bite: Pavane for a Vampire Queen, 2011
• No More a-Roving (Vampire Mix), 2011
• Exquisite Corpse (from the novel by Robert Irwin), 2011
• The Last of the Vostyachs (from the novel by Diego Marani), 2012
• Constellation of Genius, 2012
• Dracbeth, 2014
• Carnal to the Point of Scandal, 2015

References

Reviews

• Self, Will (19 October 2012). "Constellation of Genius, 1922: Modernism Year One by Kevin Jackson – review". Guardian.
• Laity, Paul (3 March 2005). "Humphrey Jennings". London Review of Books. 27 (5): 18–20.
• Blincoe, Nicholas (11 April 2004). "Letters of Introduction". Daily Telegraph.
• Mullan, John (11 April 2004). "Letters of Introduction". Guardian.
• French, Philip (20 January 2008). "Lawrence of Arabia". Observer.
• Carrier, Dan (28 January 2010). "The Worlds of John Ruskin". Camden New Journal.
• O'Brien, Murray (22 February 2009). "Moose". Independent on Sunday.
• Lacey, Josh (28 March 2009). "Moose". Guardian.
• Preston, John (21 October 2009). "Bite". Spectator.
• Hirst, Christopher (29 October 2009). "Bite". Independent.
• Poole, Stephen (27 March 2004). "Bite". Guardian.
• Biswell, Andrew (25 January 2003). "Bite". Guardian.

External links

• The London Institute of 'Pataphysics
• The Worple Press
• Carcanet Press
• The Final Journey of a Working Writer, by Kevin Jackson in the Independent
• A Polymath's Polymath: A Conversation with Kevin Jackson
• Author Bio at Portobello Books
• "Modernism with Ali Smith and Kevin Jackson". Start the Week, BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 22 October 2012.