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Tony Harrison

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53-647: Tony Harrison (born 30 April 1937) is an English poet, translator and playwright. He was born in Beeston , Leeds and he received his education in Classics from Leeds Grammar School and Leeds University . He is one of Britain's foremost verse writers and many of his works have been performed at the Royal National Theatre . He is noted for controversial works such as the poem " V ", as well as his versions of dramatic works: from ancient Greek such as

106-492: A Nisa food store and a number of smaller shops. Housing in this part of Beeston is made up of almost equal proportions of late Victorian and early-20th-century terraced housing to the east of Old Lane, and newer semi-detached family and housing association properties to the west. To the south side of Dewsbury Road, there are significant areas of industrial premises. Indicators for health, economic activity and community safety in this area are broadly consistent with averages for

159-465: A First in French and German Literature from Oxford University , then began teaching History of ideas at Oxford Polytechnic (now Oxford Brookes ). Becoming interested in the study of extremist right-wing movements and regimes which have shaped modern history, Griffin obtained a PhD from Oxford University in 1990. He first developed his palingenesis theory of fascism in his PhD thesis. His best known work

212-519: A bowling green. Beeston is home to two stadiums: Cross Flatts Park covers an area of 44 acres (17.8 hectares ) in the centre of Beeston. While the park formerly suffered from neglect and had a high crime rate, through the work of the Council and community groups such as Friends of Cross Flatts Park and Beeston in Bloom the park has been cleaned up and made safer and more welcoming. The park has

265-411: A form of revolutionary organic nationalist movement, or palingenetic ultranationalism . For Griffin, fascism directly mobilises popular energies or works through an elite to eventually achieve the cultural hegemony of new values and the total rebirth of the 'ultranation', whether conceived as a historic nation-state or as a race or ethnos , from what it defines as the present state of decadence. Fascism

318-480: A grade II* listed scheduled ancient monument originally built for the storage of crops, have been dated to between 1448 and 1490. By the early 17th century the area had a reputation for manufacturing bone lace , and by the middle of the century, coal-mining was underway in the area. According to David Thornton, in December 1688 rumours abounded in the town [of Leeds] that an army of Roman Catholics were ravaging

371-519: A large multi-use games area which includes five-a-side football pitches, basketball courts and tennis courts, while the park boasts an artificial cricket pitch, a children's play area and outdoor gym equipment. The park is the venue for the Beeston Festival which takes place annually in June, and in summer and school holidays is host to numerous activities for young people. The park hosts

424-716: A large number of awards, including, in 2011, the Regeneration and Renewal Magazine Regeneration Award for Sustainability, with judges praising the holistic way it addressed sustainability and provides real regeneration benefits to a deprived area. Robb Street and Avenue are likely named after its architect George C Robb, who was chief housing architect for RAH Livett, Leeds Housing Director and later City Architect. Beeston has at least ten churches of several denominations including Church of England , Roman Catholic , Methodist and Baptist . The Anglican churches of St Mary on Town Street and St Luke on Malvern Road were constructed in

477-586: A name first attested in 1398 as Catbeston and Cattbeston . The Cat element is also found in a local field-name, Cadtheweit (whose second element comes from Old Norse þveit , meaning 'clearing'), attested in 1202. The Cat element could come from the Old English word catt ('cat, wild-cat') or from a personal name Cada . Recent scholarship prefers the latter interpretation, in which case Cat Beeston once meant 'Cada's estate characterised by bent-gress', while Cadtheweit meant 'Cada's clearing'. To

530-476: A weekly 5 km Parkrun every Saturday morning at 9am, over 1,000 runners have taken part in the event since it began on 30 March 2013. Holbeck Cemetery in Beeston opened in 1857 and closed to general burials in the 1940s. During the period it was operational, thousands of people were buried there with many in 'guinea graves' with several unrelated people buried in the same plot. The graves were so called for

583-667: A working men's hostel designed for the council by George C. Robb in 1936, was converted by Citu to the Greenhouse, an eco-friendly housing project. The building had been empty for a number of years and had previously been earmarked for demolition. The development, which includes 172 homes, office space and other facilities, is one of the UK's first low-carbon housing developments and incorporates wind turbines, solar panels and ground source heating as well as energy efficient materials and rainwater and greywater recycling. The development has won

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636-530: Is Cottingley , which is just under a mile away from the Town Street end of Beeston. Services between Leeds and Huddersfield are operated by TransPennine Express , stopping at Morley, Batley, Dewsbury, Ravensthorpe, Mirfield and Deighton. Beeston is served by a number of bus services along Dewsbury Road, Elland Road and Town Street, operated primarily by First Leeds and Arriva Yorkshire ; these include: Beeston Hill and Beeston are severed from Leeds by

689-591: Is The Nature of Fascism (1991). In May 2011, he received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Leuven in recognition of his services to the comparative study of fascism. Griffin's theory, set out first in The Nature of Fascism in 1991, and more recently in Fascism: An Introduction to Comparative Fascist Studies (2017), offers a heuristically useful ideal type of fascism as

742-605: Is a specialist arts college. Matthew Murray High School situated between Beeston and Holbeck closed down in 2004 and was merged with Merlyn Rees High School in Belle Isle , to form South Leeds High School in Belle Isle. In September 2009 South Leeds High School was reopened as the South Leeds Academy . In September 2017, South Leeds Academy was renamed and rebranded as Cockburn John Charles Academy, as

795-622: Is an ideology that has assumed a large number of specific national permutations and several distinct organizational forms. Moreover, it is a political project that continues to evolve to this day throughout the Europeanized world, though it remains highly marginalised compared with the central place it occupied in inter-war Europe, and its central role in identity politics has been largely replaced by non-revolutionary forms of radical right-wing populism. Griffin's approach, though still highly contested in some quarters, has nonetheless influenced

848-477: Is convinced that Harrison's 1998 film-poem Prometheus is "artistic reaction to the fall of the British working class" at the end of the twentieth century, and considers it as "the most important adaptation of classical myth for a radical political purpose for years" and Harrison's "most brilliant artwork, with the possible exception of his stage play The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus ". Professor Roger Griffin of

901-586: Is driven by a rejection of the decadence of 'actually existing modernity' under liberal democracy or tradition. The fascist attempt to institute a different civilisation and a new temporality in the West found its most comprehensive expression in the 'modernist states' of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler . Since 1945 fascism has diversified and can no longer form a mass movement that is populist and charismatic, having been reduced instead to terroristic attacks on liberal democratic society and those it deems 'enemies' of

954-452: Is recorded as having a population of 2,547 with 537 houses, a railway station and a post office , and 'by the end of the 19th century Beeston was predominantly a working class community living in back-to-backs'. Beeston was formerly a township and chapelry in the parish of Leeds, in 1866 Beeston became a separate civil parish , on 26 March 1904 the parish was abolished and merged with Holbeck and became part of Leeds in 1925. In 1901

1007-659: Is surrounded by areas which have become popular with businesses, such as Leeds city centre , Tingley and many of the business districts along the south side of the River Aire . The neighbouring White Rose Shopping Centre employs thousands of full- and part-time staff. Beeston is home to the Beeston Centre of the Leeds City College (formerly Joseph Priestley College ) and Elliott Hudson College . Beeston has one secondary school, Cockburn School which

1060-554: Is the long poem " V " (1985), written during the miners' strike of 1984–85 , and describing a trip to see his parents' grave in Holbeck Cemetery in Beeston, Leeds , 'now littered with beer cans and vandalised by obscene graffiti'. The title has several possible interpretations: victory, versus, verse, insulting V sign etc. Proposals to screen a filmed version of "V" by Channel 4 in October 1987 drew howls of outrage from

1113-511: Is unclear. It is thought to refer to some cross-shaped pattern of field divisions. The origin of the settlement is likely to be Anglo-Saxon. Beeston is first mentioned in the 1086 Domesday Book , when it had recently been granted to Ilbert de Lacy (1045–93); in 1066 it had been worth 40 shillings (£2), but in 1086 it was considered waste, presumably because of the Harrying of the North . It

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1166-532: The BBC drama serial Waterloo Road was a pupil at the school. Roger Griffin Roger David Griffin (born 31 January 1948) is a British professor of modern history and political theorist at Oxford Brookes University , England. His principal interest is the socio-historical and ideological dynamics of fascism , as well as various forms of political or religious fanaticism . Griffin obtained

1219-548: The Beeston and Holbeck ward of Leeds City Council , which has since its creation in 2004 consistently been represented by Labour councillors. Parts of Beeston Hill to the north of Cross Flatts Park are located within the Hunslet and Riverside ward. This was created in 2018, and largely corresponds to its predecessor City and Hunslet, created in 2004. This was too has invariably returned Labour councillors since 2004. Hilary Benn (Labour) has been MP since 1999 when he won

1272-488: The Domesday Book , in the form Bestone . The name seems to come from Old English * bēos 'bent-grass' (L. Agrostis ) and tūn 'estate, village'. Thus it once meant 'estate characterised by bent-grass'. The northern area of Beeston, situated on a hillside facing north to the centre of Leeds, came in the nineteenth century to be called Beeston Hill. This area was formerly called Cat Beeston (and variant spellings),

1325-490: The Labour Party from 1955 to his death in 1963, after whom a primary school in the area is named. The playwright Willis Hall attended Cockburn High School in Beeston as did the academic and author of The Uses of Literacy , Richard Hoggart . The poet Tony Harrison was brought up on Tempest Road and went to what was then Cross Flatts county primary school. More recently, the actress Holly Kenny who starred in

1378-556: The M621 and therefore benefit from very good links with the M621 motorway, as well as the M62 which runs close to Beeston to the south of Morley. Much of Beeston's traditional heavy industry and fabrication works have closed throughout the last forty years. However, there are substantial areas of industrial and commercial development around Elland Road and to the south of Dewsbury Road and Beeston

1431-591: The York and Wakefield cycles, The Mysteries , were first performed in 1985 by the Royal National Theatre. Interviewed by Melvyn Bragg for BBC television in 2012, Harrison said: "It was only when I did the Mystery Plays and got Northern actors doing verse, that I felt that I was reclaiming the energy of classical verse in the voices that it was created for." One of his best-known works

1484-742: The tragedies Oresteia and Lysistrata , from French Molière 's The Misanthrope , from Middle English The Mysteries . He is also noted for his outspoken views, particularly those on the Iraq War . In 2015, he was honoured with the David Cohen Prize in recognition for his body of work. In 2016, he was awarded the Premio Feronia in Rome . Adaptation of the English Medieval Mystery Plays , based on

1537-587: The 'true' nation/race and its rebirth. His most recent research has been on terrorism. In his Terrorist's Creed: Fanatical Violence and the Human Need for Meaning he studies the origins and motivations behind terrorism. He compares the origins of terrorism to the extremes of the National Socialists in the 1930s, noting that "fanatics" separate the world into good and evil, and then undergo "heroic doubling" where they see themselves as warriors in

1590-506: The 1870s these roads remain as Elland Road and Dewsbury Road respectively. By 1822, Beeston had a population of 1,670. Until the 19th century, Beeston had been a small mining village situated on a hill overlooking Leeds. However, during the Industrial Revolution , land that had been occupied by open pits, as well as land formerly utilised for farming, was snapped up for high density residential development. By 1872, Beeston

1643-465: The 1870s, though the former is on the site of a much older church. The more modern church of St David Waincliffe on Dewsbury Road, constructed in the 1960s was designed by Geoffrey Davy and won a Hoffman Wood (Leeds) Gold Medal for Architecture. There are three mosques in Beeston, all located within the Beeston Hill area. There is also a Sikh Gurdwara . Most parts of Beeston are located within

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1696-466: The City of Leeds as a whole. Beeston Hill is largely made up of areas of older Victoria terraces and newer social housing, which comprises around a third of the housing stock in the area. In April 2008, a £93 million PFI scheme to build 700 private and housing association dwellings and regenerate some existing stock was announced. As a particularly deprived area, Beeston Hill along with Holbeck

1749-774: The City of Leeds as a whole. The west of Beeston around Elland Road has significant amounts of industrial estates, with a substantial amount of mainly semi-detached and terraced housing to the western edge of the Parkside and Cross Flatts area. This also forms much of the Old Village side of Beeston, as can be seen in many of the houses along Town Street/Milshaw. Beeston has a main-line railway line running along its western edge along which all services between Leeds and London King's Cross and London St Pancras run; however, there are no stations along it, as Beeston station closed to passengers in 1953. The nearest railway station

1802-666: The Cockburn MAT opened a new school. There are seven primary schools in the area. Beeston has a range of facilities. It has two large health centres, Elland Road stadium and the John Charles Centre for Sport . Leeds city centre is a short distance away and the M1 and M62 motorways are easily accessed. Cross Flatts Park has many facilities, which include 5-a-side football pitches, tennis courts, two separate play areas one for older children and one for younger children and

1855-470: The Department of History at Oxford Brookes University , in his paper The palingenetic political community: rethinking the legitimation of totalitarian regimes in inter-war Europe , describes Harrison's film-poem as "magnificent" and suggests that Harrison is trying to tell his audience "To avoid falling prey to the collective mirage of a new order, to stay wide awake while others succumb to the lethe of

1908-453: The Virgin may also have been founded in the 13th century. The oldest buildings in Beeston today date to the 15th century. Cad Beeston (also Cad-Beeston, Cat Beeston, Cat-Beeston) manor house has been dated by dendrochronology to about 1420, and is a grade II* listed building ; recently used as private offices, it is now a private dwelling, with no public access. Parts of Stank Hall Barn,

1961-841: The battle between good and evil. This theme will be pursued and deepened in his next monograph The Divisible Self: Heroic Doubling and the Origins of Modern Violence (Columbia: Agenda, Columbia University Press, September 2021). Griffin was co-founder of the open access journal Fascism (Brill) and co-founder of COMFAS , International Association for the Comparative Study of Fascism, directed by Professor Constantin Iordachi (Central European University). Griffin has translated works by Norberto Bobbio and Ferruccio Rossi-Landi  [ it ] . Griffin used to count trance music and rave culture among his interests. He wrote

2014-445: The comparative literature on fascism of the last 25 years, drawing on the work of George Mosse , Stanley Payne , and Emilio Gentile to highlight the revolutionary and totalising politico-cultural nature of the fascist revolution in marked contrast to Marxist approaches. His book, Modernism and Fascism , locates the mainspring of the fascist drive for national rebirth in the modernist bid to achieve an alternative modernity , which

2067-422: The east, and Parkside and Cross Flatts to the west. The distinction between these two areas has probably existed since medieval times when they were two separate manors. Beeston - Elland Road and Millshaw is primarily industrial and centred on Elland Road to the west of the area. The Parkside and Cross Flatts area of Beeston, sometimes locally known as Beeston Village, is centred on a shopping centre comprising

2120-672: The factory was vacated in the 1990s, and is now home to Nampak Cartons. In 2006, the district was the setting for much of the film Mischief Night . Beeston is an inner-city area located close to Leeds city centre. It is severed from the areas to the north by the M621 motorway , separated from Middleton by Middleton Park and from Cottingley by the Leeds Outer Ring Road . Beeston can be described as three distinct areas. Beeston - Parkside and Cross Flatts area and Beeston Hill are separated by Cross Flatts Park which runs between Dewsbury Road and Town Street: Beeston Hill to

2173-604: The group mind, to resist the gaze of modern Gorgons". Beeston, Leeds Beeston is a suburb of Leeds , West Yorkshire , England located on a hill about 2 miles (3 km) south of the city centre. The origins of Beeston can be traced back to the medieval period. It remained a small settlement until the latter part of the Victorian era when it became a primarily residential area for people working in Leeds and surrounding industrial areas like Holbeck and Hunslet . At

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2226-540: The other bombs landing on Cross Flatts Park. In his 2005 poem "Shrapnel", Tony Harrison , who was in Beeston on the night of the raid, speculates whether this was an act of heroism by the German pilot, a theory that has been explored ever since the raid. Holbeck Cemetery, in Beeston, also features prominently in Harrison's 1985 poem " V ". Beeston was formerly home to card and board game manufacturer Waddingtons , though

2279-480: The parish had a population of 3323. On the night of 14 March and early hours of 15 March 1941 , during the Second World War , Leeds received its worst night of German aerial bombing. Beeston had more bombs dropped on it than any other district of the city and although Flaxton Terrace was damaged during the night time air raid , escaped with the less damage than most other areas of Leeds with nearly all

2332-587: The rest of us". Richard Eyre calls Harrison's 1990 play, The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus "among the five most imaginative pieces of drama in the 90s". Jocelyn Herbert , famous designer of the British theatrical scene, comments that Harrison is aware of the dramatic visual impact of his ideas: "The idea of satyrs jumping out of boxes in Trackers is wonderful for the stage. Some writers just write and have little idea what it will look like, but Tony always knows exactly what he wants." Edith Hall has written that she

2385-638: The seat following the death of Derek Fatchett who had been MP for Leeds Central since 1983 . Before the 1997 general election , Beeston was part of the Morley and Leeds South constituency , represented from its creation in 1983 to 1992 by Merlyn Rees and from 1992 to 1997 by John Gunnell . Before the creation of the Morley and South Leeds constituency the area was part of the Leeds South constituency represented until 1963 by Hugh Gaitskell , leader of

2438-521: The shared headstones on which a single-line inscription cost one guinea (21 shillings ). Henry Rowland Marsden , the Victorian industrialist and former mayor of Leeds, is buried in Holbeck Cemetery where his family grave is marked by a Grade II-listed memorial. The poem " V " by Tony Harrison, published in 1985, describes a visit to Holbeck Cemetery and his reaction to finding his parents' tombstones vandalised. In 2008 Shaftesbury House,

2491-530: The surrounding area. Ralph Thoresby recorded, 'Beeston is actually burnt, and only some escaped to bring the doleful tidings! The drums beat, the bells rang backward, the women shrieked, and some doleful consternation seized upon all persons ... (B)lessed be God! The terror disappeared, it being a false alarm, taken from some drunken people.' Between 1740 and 1820, the Leeds-Elland and Dewsbury-Leeds turnpike roads were built through Beeston; nationalised in

2544-528: The tabloid press, some broadsheet journalists, and MPs, apparently concerned about the effects its " torrents of obscene language " and " streams of four-letter filth " would have on the nation's youth. Indeed, an Early Day Motion entitled "Television Obscenity" was proposed on 27 October 1987 by a group of Conservative Members of Parliament (MPs), who condemned Channel 4 and the Independent Broadcasting Authority . The motion

2597-479: The time of the 2011 Census , Beeston had a population of 22,187 (which included Holbeck). Some parts of the area, around Cross Flatts Park, suffer from relatively high levels of deprivation, while areas to the centre and south are generally considered more affluent. Beeston is home to the Leeds United football club stadium on Elland Road and Hunslet rugby league club. The name Beeston is first attested in

2650-475: The west of Beeston lies Beeston Royds, whose name is first attested (as Beyston Royds ) in 1633. The royds element comes from the Old English word rod ('clearing'). Another district of Beeston is the Cross Flatts area. This name is first attested in 1636, as Crossflatts and other spellings. The Middle English word flat meant 'piece of level ground, field', but the precise significance of 'cross'

2703-475: Was one of the ten 'out-townships' of the Parish of Leeds until the parish was broken up in the 1840s-50s. In the medieval period, Beeston was associated with sheep-farming : the monks of Kirkstall Abbey grazed 240 sheep there. Founding Drax Priory in the 1130s, William Paynel granted it land in Beeston. A small hospital seems to have been founded in the township around 1233, and a chapel dedicated to St Mary

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2756-479: Was opposed only by MP Norman Buchan , who suggested that fellow members had either failed to read or failed to understand the poem. The broadcast went ahead and, after widespread press coverage, the uproar subsided. Gerald Howarth MP said that Harrison was "Probably another bolshie poet wishing to impose his frustrations on the rest of us". When told of this, Harrison retorted that Howarth was "Probably another idiot MP wishing to impose his intellectual limitations on

2809-445: Was the beneficiary of Objective 2 European funding. Beeston Hill has a relatively high level of empty housing as well as a number of significant unoccupied commercial premises. Beeston Hill has a significant ethnic minority population, with around 40% of the population from BME Communities. The area suffers from a high level of deprivation, with indicators for health, economic activity and community safety substantially worse than for

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