{"product_id":"v-gb8b9f666","title":"v.","description":"Tony Harrison's v. was written during the Miners' Strike of 1984-85 when he visited his parents' grave in a Leeds cemetery and found it vandalised by obscene graffiti. In the book-length poem, he confronts the foul-mouthed skinhead thug responsible, who becomes a foil for his own anger and alienation. The political and media reaction to v. would make a book in itself. This is that book. As well as Tony Harrison's poem and Graham Sykes's photographs, this new edition of v. includes press articles, letters, reviews, a defence of the poem and film by director Richard Eyre, and a transcript of the phone calls logged by Channel Four on the night of the broadcast. Channel Four’s film of v. won the Royal Television Society’s Best Original Programme Award.\n\nThe Star: 'A plan to televise a poem packed with obscenities caused outrage last night. ITV chiefs intend to screen a reading of Tony Harrison's verse v. which is full of four-letter words.'\n\nDaily Mail: A torrent of four-letter filth… the most explicitly sexual language yet beamed into the nation's living rooms… the crudest, most offensive word is used 17 times.'\n\nGerald Howarth, MP: 'It is full of expletives and I can't see that it serves any artistic purpose whatsoever.'\n\nMary Whitehouse: 'This work of singular nastiness.'\n\nSir Harold Pinter: 'The criticism against the poem has been offensive, juvenile and, of course, philistine. It should certainly be broadcast.'\n\nSir Richard Eyre: 'If I had the slightest influence over educational policy in this country, I'd see that v. was a set text in every school in the country, but of course if we lived in that sort of country, the poem wouldn't have needed to be written.'","brand":"Bloodaxe Books Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54229076050264,"sku":"9780906427972","price":17.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9780906427972.jpg?v=1777123838","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/v-gb8b9f666","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}