Hackney-based publisher House Sparrow Press has given us a new edition of experimental filmmaker Derek Jarman’s 1987 book Kicking the Pricks: The Last of England. Long out of print, the volume has been brought back to life together with a new preface by Jarman’s close friend Keith Collins, an afterword by Declan Wiffen, a previously unpublished interview and numerous archival photos.
A book launch on 3 November at Castle Cinema will include a screening of The Last of England and an introduction by Gareth Evans.
The collage-like volume was assembled out of notes, diary entries and essays at the time Jarman was filming The Last of England, featuring a young Tilda Swinton. The text switches back and forth between Jarman’s recent HIV diagnosis, his views on the Thatcher government, the role of painting in his film and his relationship with his father.
What comes through most clearly are the challenges of being a queer filmmaker in the 1980s, when overt depictions of homosexuality meant marginalisation and serious difficulties attracting funding. As a result, Jarman made do with Super 8 film, and the result is one of the most distinctively gritty voices in UK cinema.
The book also contains technical discussions of the process of making the film itself. “I never saw myself as a film director, I’ve never seen myself as one, I’m not one,” he avers. How The Last of England came together reflects this lack of overt ‘direction’. It had no script, no casting and no plot to speak of. Instead it is an improvised assemblage of oblique reflections on national character and the direction of travel of the country.
Not ashamed of self-praise, Jarman himself believed the film was “exciting because it makes recent British cinema look very tired”. The poetic mixture of images “works by evoking memories”, he claims, and “these will be different for each person”. “Was it about anything?” he muses. “I’m not sure, why don’t you tell me?”
Kicking the Pricks: The Last of England by Derek Jarman is published by House Sparrow Press. ISBN: 978-1-913513-94-8; RRP: £12.99.
The Last of England book launch and introduction
3 November 2026
The Castle Cinema
First floor, 64-66 Brooksby’s Walk
E9 6DA
