David Harsent

Writer

Add to shortlist

Books

Agent: Charles Walker

Charles Walker

cwalker@unitedagents.co.uk

Associate Agent : Olivia Martin

omartin@unitedagents.co.uk

Film, TV & Theatre

Agent: Charles Walker

Charles Walker

cwalker@unitedagents.co.uk

Associate Agent : Olivia Martin

omartin@unitedagents.co.uk

Books

Download CV

David Harsent is a critically acclaimed poet, novelist and librettist. Under the pseudonyms David Lawrence, David Pascoe and Jack Curtis he has published thrillers that have been translated into fifteen languages, and has worked extensively for the BBC and ITV (see David Lawrence). His most recent collection of poems, FIRE SONGS, won the 2015 T.S. Elliot Poetry Prize.

LEGION was the winner of the Forward Prize for poetry in 2005, and the following volume, NIGHT was shortlisted for the Costa Book Awards, the TS Eliot prize, and was nominated for the Forward Prize. His work in music theatre includes commissions from the Royal Opera House and the Proms and performances at the South Bank Centre and Carnegie Hall.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, an Honorary Research Fellow at Royal Holloway University and, in 2008, was appointed Visiting Professor at Hallam University, Sheffield.

FIRE SONGS, Faber, 2014

Reviews for NIGHT

'Truly significant poets write like no one else, and David Harsent is both sui generis and unsurpassed. Taking over where his Forward Prize-winning book Legion left off, Night conducts an examination of the human psyche that is unique in both the unflinchingness of its gaze, and the narrative metaphors it uses to explore dream-life, terror and hidden impulse... Working, as poetry should, on every level at once, Harsent's verse is also unified by rhyme and its variants — including alliterative chime — which fill the mouth with pleasure and beg to be read aloud... At once disciplined and wild at heart, as linguistically rich as it is visceral, Night is Harsent’s finest book to date.' Independent

'Harsent has a dreamer’s eye and an unerring ear... “Elsewhere”, the long poem that ends the collection, is [his] most dazzling achievement... This poem deepens the theme of dispossession, the days and nights of reckoning, the consideration of what it might mean to lose everything. Harsent alludes to loss in so many ways but his poems are treasures — all gain.' Observer

'It’s an unmistakeable, endlessly adaptable style, able to hit every tone on the scale, from leer to lament... Pain and loss light us through the darkness, Harsent insists, as well as contributing to it. The light of these poems is essential.' Guardian

Poetry

Publication Details	Notes
SKIN 2024 Faber	Poetry Collection
A BROKEN MAN IN FLOWER 2023 Bloodaxe Books	Yannis Ritsos (1909–90) is generally considered to be – along with Cavafy, Seferis and Elytis – one of the most significant Greek poets of the last century. His life was, to say the least, troubled. From an early age, he was dogged by the tuberculosis that killed his mother and brother. His father and sister suffered breakdowns and spent time in institutions. His poem Epitaphios (1936), a lament for a young man shot dead by the police during a tobacco workers’ strike, was publicly burned by the Metaxas regime and his books banned. During the post-World War Two civil war – because he sided with the left – Ritsos was arrested and sent to prison camps. Then, in 1967, when the Papadopoulos military junta took control of the country, he was again arrested, again his books were banned, again he spent time in prison camps, before being confined to house arrest on the island of Samos. The violence and tyranny of dictatorship is often fractured by the surreal. In the poems collected here, written by Ritsos while in prison and under house arrest, that fracture in perception is a wound. A Broken Man in Flower has an introduction by John Kittmer and includes the text of an illuminating and vivid letter sent by Ritsos to his publisher in 1969 while under house arrest on Samos describing his life – and the lives of Greeks – under the repressive rule of the Colonels. David Harsent’s thirteen collections have won a number of awards, including the Forward Prize, the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Griffin International Prize. He is also a librettist: his collaborations with composers, chiefly with Harrison Birtwistle, have been performed at major venues worldwide.
SALT 2017 Faber	Written as David Harsent.
FIRE SONGS 2014 Faber	*Winner of T.S. Eliot Poetry Prize (2015). Written as David Harsent.
IN SECRET - VERSIONS OF YANNIS RITSOS 2012 Enitharnon	Written as David Harsent.
NIGHT 2011 Faber	Shortlisted for the Costa Book Prize (poetry), the T.S. Eliot Prize, and nominated for the Forward Proze 2011. Written as David Harsent.
SELECTED POEMS 1969-2005 2007 Faber	In an illustrious career, David Harsent has published eight collections of poetry, from "A Violent County" in 1969 to "Legion", winner of the Forward Prize in 2005. This selection, made by the author himself, draws upon the full arc of his career and offers an outstanding concentration of, and introduction to, the full range and powers of this distinguished poet.
LEGION 2005 Faber	Forward Prize Winner 2005/6 Shortlisted for T.S. Eliot Prize Shortlisted for Whitbread Award Written as David Harsent.
MARRIAGE 2002 Faber	Shortlisted for T.S. Eliot Prize. Shortlisted for the Forward Prize. Written as David Harsent.
A BIRD'S IDEA OF FLIGHT 1998 Faber	Shortlisted for the Forward Prize Written as David Harsent.
SPRINTING FROM THE GRAVEYARD 1997 OUP	Translation from original by Goran Simic. Written as David Harsent.
THE SORROW OF SARAJEVO 1996 Refer to United Agents	Translation from originals by Goran Simic. Written as David Harsent.
NEWS FROM THE FRONT 1993 OUP	Written as David Harsent.
SELECTED POEMS 1989 OUP	Written as David Harsent.
MISTER PUNCH 1984 OUP	Written as David Harsent.
DREAMS OF THE DEAD 1977 OUP	Geoffry Faber Memorial Award Winner Arts Council Bursary Written as David Harsent.
AFTER DARK 1973 OUP	Written as David Harsent.
TRUCE 1973 Refer to United Agents	Written as David Harsent.
A VIOLENT COUNTRY 1968 OUP	Arts Council Bursary Written as David Harsent.

Fiction

Publication Details	Notes
DOWN INTO DARKNESS 2007 Michael Joseph	Written as David Lawrence. The naked body of a young woman is found hanging from a tree on a London roadside. Scrawled across her back, the words 'DIRTY GIRL'. Detective Sergeant Stella Mooney and the AMIP 5 squad are faced with a murder as baffling as it is chilling. With no means to identify the victim and no apparent motive, the case is blocked, until...A man is found on a bench by the river, his throat cut back to the vertebrae. And, as before, the killer has left a trademark comment: 'FILTHY COWARD'. Stella and her team can see there's a connection: but what? One victim is a young girl - maybe one of the hookers who work the Strip; the other a researcher for a prominent and controversial MP. More evidence is needed. And soon enough, it comes; another death, another message...
COLD KILL 2005 Michael Joseph	A Stella Mooney Crime Novel. Written as David Lawrence.
NOTHING LIKE THE NIGHT 2005 Michael Joseph	A Stella Mooney Crime Novel. Written as David Lawrence.
THE DEAD SIT AROUND IN A RING 2004 Michael Joseph	A Stella Mooney Crime Novel. Written as David Lawrence.
FOX ON THE RUN 1999 Orion	Written as David Pascoe.
THE CONFESSOR 1997 Orion	Written as Jack Curtis.
MIRRORS KILL 1996 Bantam	Written as Jack Curtis.
CONJURE ME 1992 Bantam	Written as Jack Curtis.
SONS OF THE MORNING 1992 Bantam	Written as Jack Curtis.
GLORY 1989 Bantam	Written as Jack Curtis.
CROWS' PARLIAMENT 1988 Bantam	Written as Jack Curtis.

Other

Publication Details	Notes
ANOTHER ROUND AT THE PILLARS: A FESTSCHRIFT FOR IAN HAMILTON (ed.) 1999 Refer to United Agents	Written as David Harsent.
Gawain 1991 Refer to United Agents	Libretto Written as David Harsent.
FROM AN INLAND SEA 1986 Viking	Novel Written as David Harsent.

Film, TV & Theatre

Download CV

LEGION was the winner of the Forward Prize for poetry in 2005, and his current volume, NIGHT has been shortlisted for the Costa Book Awards, the TS Eliot prize, and was nominated for the Forward Prize. His work in music theatre includes commissions from the Royal Opera House and the Proms and performances at the South Bank Centre and Carnegie Hall.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, an Honorary Research Fellow at Royal Holloway University and, in 2008, was appointed Visiting Professor at Hallam University, Sheffield.

NIGHT, Faber, 2011

Currently shortlisted for the Costa Book Awards 2011

Currently shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize

Shortlisted for the Forward Prize 2011

Opera

Production	Company	Notes
THE LOCKED ROOM	Music Theatre Wales	Music by Huw Watkins. To be performed at the Edinburgh International Festival 2012
THE YELLOW WALLPAPER	Chester Music	Music by Simon Holt. To be performed in Cardiff, April the 20th, 2012
THE CORRIDOR	Aldeburgh Music	Music by Harrison Birtwistle. Aldeburgh Festival 2009, Bregenz Festival 2009
CRIME FICTION	Music Theatre Wales	Music by Huw Watkins. Libretto for a short opera.
MINOTAUR	Royal Opera House	Music by Harrison Birtwistle. Libretto for an opera.
WHEN SHE DIED	Kammeroper, Vienna / Channel 4	Music by Jonathan Dove
THE RING DANCE OF THE NAZARENE	BBC/ Dutch Radio	Music by Harrison Birtwistle. First performance Conertgebouw, Amsterdam. Promenade Concert in 2004.
THE WOMAN AND THE HARE	The Nash Ensemble	Music by Harrison Birtwistle. Song cycle. Grammy Nom
GAWAIN	Royal Opera House	Music by Harrison Birtwistle. Libretto for an opera. First performance May 1991. Revivals in 1994 and 2000.
THE HOOP OF THE WORLD		Music by Alan Lawrence. Libretto for an opera. Score in preparation.
SERENADE THE SILKIE	Prussia Cove Festival 1994	Music by Julian Grant.

Television

Production	Company	Notes
GARROW'S LAW 2011	Twenty Twenty / BBC1	Series 3, episode 2 Credited as David Lawrence.
EASTENDERS 2011	BBC / BBC1	2 X 30' minute episodes Credited as David Lawrence.
MIDSOMER MURDERS XIV - The Sleeper Under the Hill 2011	Bentley / ITV1	Credited as David Lawrence.
HOLBY CITY 2010	BBC / BBC1	11 x 60' minutes Credited as David Lawrence.
MIDSOMER MURDERS XII - Blood on the Saddle 2009	Bentley Productions / ITV	Credited as David Lawrence.
THE BILL 2009	Talkback Thames / ITV	5 x 60', including final episodes 'Respect' parts I & II. Credited as David Lawrence.
MIDSOMER MURDERS XI - Talking to the Dead 2008	Bentley / ITV	Credited as David Lawrence.
BLUE MURDER 2008	ITV Productions	Credited as David Lawrence.
MIDSOMER MURDERS X - Blood Wedding 2007	Bentley Productions / ITV	Credited as David Lawrence.
MIDSOMER MURDERS - IX - Death in Chorus 2006	Bentley Productions / ITV	Credited as David Lawrence.
MURDER ME - 'Twisted Tales' series	BBC3	Credited as David Lawrence.
WHEN SHE DIED	Tiger Aspect / Channel 4	Opera with Jonathan Dove.
DIRTY WORK	Alomo / BBC1	Credited as David Lawrence.
GOODNIGHT SWEETHEART	Alomo / BBC1	Series 4, 5 & 6; Nine Episodes. Credited as David Lawrence.
BIRDS OF A FEATHER	Alomo / BBC1	Two episodes. Credited as David Lawrence.
NOAH'S ARK	Whitehall Productions / Carlton	Series Two, 3 episodes. Credited as David Lawrence.
SHINE ON HARVEY MOON	Alomo / BBC1	Three episodes. Credited as David Lawrence.
LOVE HURTS	Alomo / BBC1	Series 1, 2 & 3: Ten Episodes. Credited as David Lawrence.
A CLASS ACT	Cinema Verity / ITV	Two episodes. Credited as David Lawrence.