Originally published: Woodstock, N.Y.: Overlook Press, 1994.

Derek Jarman (1942–94) is known as one of Europe’s greatest independent film-makers; his films call into question and reconsider the nature of filmmaking itself. But, as Michael Charlesworth shows in this new biography, Jarman was also a painter, writer, gardener, set designer, and an influential campaigner for gay rights and other social causes. Charlesworth discusses the entire diverse range of Jarman’s works in order to provide a thorough portrait from childhood to his untimely death. Charlesworth is the first scholar to properly integrate Jarman’s paintings and writings with his films, demonstrating the strong connections between his varied areas of artistic practice. He also draws invaluable insights from Jarmon’s extraordinary series of journals that offer a look into the nature of the society in which he lived, as well as his own creative process. And through the thoughts and memories of Jarman’s friends, Charlesworth reveals how Jarman was an important voice on behalf of many—one who espoused love and friendship, while fearlessly campaigning for the virtues and the value of art in an often hostile and unappreciative political and social atmosphere. Fresh in its conclusions and engaging in style, Derek Jarman is an accessible and thought-provoking analysis of Jarman’s phenomenal creativity and a perfect complement to Jarman’s works.

Part autobiography and part social history: the acclaimed director’s filmmaking process revealed through his private sketchbooks Legendary filmmaker Derek Jarman recorded his life and work in highly detailed sketchbooks. Encompassing both the private and the professional, these offer a personal view into the life and career of a highly influential filmmaker and artist. Drawn from the collection of handmade books that Jarman gave to the British Film Institute shortly before his death in 1994, Derek Jarman’s Sketchbooks showcases the most insightful and beautiful pages. Each of the original volumes is composed of drawings, photographs, and cuttings; pressed flowers are set beside scrawled ideas, and carefully penned poems accompany typed and edited working scripts. These once-private books are an intimate pictorial record of the detailed planning and research and the creative and emotional engagement behind every scene in Jarman’s films.

Derek Jarmans Garden is the last book Jarman ever wrote. It is a fitting memorial to a brilliant and greatly loved artist and film maker who, against all odds, made a breathtaking garden in the most inhospitable of places the flat, bleak, often desolate expanse of shingle overlooked by the Dungeness nuclear power station. Here is Jarmans own record of how the garden evolved, from its earliest beginnings in 1986 to the last year of his life. More than 150 photographs by his friend Howard Sooley capture the garden at all its different stages and at every season of the year, revealing its complex geometrical plan, magical stone circles and the beautiful and bizarre scupltures. We also catch glimpses of Jarman at work on the garden. This beautiful book will appeal to all those who love gardens and gardening, as well as the legions of admirers of this extraordinary man.

Rowland Wymer gives detailed, original critical readings of Derek Jarman's eleven feature-length films, and argues that he occupies a major and influential place in European and world cinema.