Kevin Jackson (writer)

Kevin Alec Jackson (3 January 1955 – 10 May 2021) was an English writer, broadcaster, filmmaker and pataphysician.

Kevin Jackson
Jackson photographed by Marzena Pogorzaly, 2012
Born	(1955-01-03)3 January 1955 London, England
Died	10 May 2021(2021-05-10) (aged 66) Cambridge, England
Occupation	Writer
Nationality	British
Period	1979–2021
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)
Spouse	Claire Preston ​ (m. 2004)​

Background

Kevin Alec Jackson was born in Balham, London, on 3 January 1955, to Alec and Alma (née Rolfe) Jackson, of Clapham.^[1] He was educated at the Emanuel School,^[2] Battersea, and Pembroke College, Cambridge.^[1]

Career

After teaching in the English Department of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, US, he returned to the United Kingdom and 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.^[3] He was a freelance writer from the early 1990s^[4] and was a regular contributor to BBC radio programmes,^[5] including Radio 4's Saturday Review.^[6]

Jackson often collaborated on projects with, among others, the filmmaker 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)^[7] and on a book-length version of Dante's Inferno (Knockabout Books, 2012); 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 in September 2011 by Atlas Press as The Bleaching Stream.^[8] 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.^[9] Worple Press published Jackson's book of interviews with Sinclair, The Verbals in 2002.^[10]

He was among the founder members of the London Institute of 'Pataphysics,^[11] and held the Ordre de la Grande Gidouille from the College de Pataphysique in Paris. He was 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.^[1]

Personal life and death

In 2004, Jackson married American academic Claire Preston, a fellow at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.^[1] They lived in Linton, Cambridgeshire.^[1] Jackson died from heart failure at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge on 10 May 2021, at the age of 66.^[1][12]

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 Press 2004 (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)
• Mayflower: The Voyage from Hell published by TSB | Can of Worms, 2020 (ISBN 9781916190870^[13])
• Darwin’s Odyssey: The Voyage of the Beagle published by TSB | Can of Worms, 2020 (ISBN 9781916190887^[14])
• The Queen’s Pirate: Sir Francis Drake and the Golden Hind published by TSB | Can of Worms, 2019 (ISBN 9781916190894^[15])
• Nelson’s Victory: Trafalgar and Tragedy published by TSB | Can of Worms, 2021 (ISBN 9781911673064^[16])

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