Kevin Jackson (writer)

Kevin Jackson
Kevin Jackson by Marzena Pogorzaly
Kevin Jackson by Marzena Pogorzaly
Born(1955-01-03)3 January 1955
London, England
Died10 May 2021(2021-05-10) (aged 66)
OccupationWriter
NationalityBritish
Period1979–2021
GenreCriticism, biography, cultural history
Notable worksThe Language of Cinema (1998)
Humphrey Jennings (2004)
Withnail & I (BFI Modern Classics) (2008)
Invisible Forms: A Guide to Literary Curiosities (2000)

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

He was educated at the Emanuel School,[1] 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.[2] He was a freelance writer since the early 1990s[3] and was a regular contributor to BBC radio programmes,[4] including Radio 4's Saturday Review.[5]

Jackson often collaborated on projects 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)[6] 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 by Atlas Press in September 2011 as The Bleaching Stream.[7] 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.[8] Worple Press published Jackson's book of interviews with Sinclair, The Verbals in 2002.[9]

He was among the founder members of the London Institute of 'Pataphysics,[10] 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.

Jackson died on 10 May 2021, at the age of 66.[11]

  1. ^ List of Old Emanuels#Literature
  2. ^ "Carcanet Press Author Biography". Retrieved 10 October 2012.
  3. ^ Sinclair, Iain. London Orbital. pp. 204–205.
  4. ^ "TV & Radio Sites". BBC. Retrieved 10 October 2012.
  5. ^ "Saturday Review Programmes". Retrieved 10 October 2012.
  6. ^ "Comic book highlights Ruskinian views". The Independent. London. 29 November 2005.
  7. ^ "The Journal of the London Institute of 'Pataphysics". Retrieved 10 October 2012. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  8. ^ Nicholas Lezard (21 September 2002). "Meandering round the M25". The Guardian.
  9. ^ Jackson, Kevin; Sinclair, Iain (2003). The Verbals: Iain Sinclair in conversation with Kevin Jackson. Worple. ISBN 9780953094790. Retrieved 10 October 2012.
  10. ^ Interview with Kevin Jackson at Ready, Steady, Book
  11. ^ Carlson, Michael (13 May 2021). "Kevin Jackson and Modernism: Constellations of Genius". Carlson Sports.