RESULTS

This volume features 'The Prince's Play', 'The Misanthrope', and 'Phaedra Britannica', translated from French.

Harrison's long poem, prompted by the offensive graffiti found on his parents' grave in Leeds, is an eloquent study of the conflicts dividing British society during the 1980s: 'v' stands for 'versus', but also 'verses'. Using Gray's 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' as a model, Harrison tries to look at life from the point of view of the unemployed, uneducated vandals - and realises he might have turned out not so different had he not had the benefits of schooling.

A storm of controversy erupted when Channel Four decided to broadcast Richard Eyre's film, which features Harrison reading the poem, at 11pm on 4th November 1987. The Daily Mail, Mary Whitehouse (then President of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association) and several Conservative MPs all called for it to be banned. The poem has since become a classic and is studied on many school syllabuses. Harrison has gone on to make many 'film-poems' (including the feature-length Prometheus), where words and images are developed together.