Editions

Smiling in Slow Motion

  • Imprint: Vintage Classics

  • ISBN: 9781784875169

  • Length: 416  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 27mm x 129mm

  • Weight: 353g

  • RRP: £9.99

Smiling in Slow Motion

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY NEIL BARTLETT

'The life-affirming expression of an artist engaged in living to the full' The Times

Smiling in Slow Motion is Derek Jarman’s last journal, stretching from May 1991 until a fortnight before his death in February 1994. Jarman writes with his trademark humour and candour about friends and enemies, as he races through his final years of film-making, gardening and radical political protest.

Written from Jarman’s Charing Cross Road flat, his famed garden at Dungeness, and finally from his bed in St Bartholomew's Hospital, Jarman meditates on his own deteriorating health and the loss of his contemporaries. Yet Smiling in Slow Motion is not simply a chronicle of illness and regret: it is, at its heart, one of endeavour, determination and pride.

  • Imprint: Vintage Classics

  • ISBN: 9781784875169

  • Length: 416  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 27mm x 129mm

  • Weight: 353g

  • RRP: £9.99

Reviews

  • Gossipy, candid, funny, and, as Jarman’s illness takes hold, powerfully moving

    Choice Magazine

  • Present on every page is the creative sparkle and compellingly generous spirit of a man who was in every way an uncompromising individual

    The Times

  • In these diaries... the artist and film director emerges as a down-to-earth visionary... this perceptive and enjoyable work is something of a miracle

    Independent

  • For all his anger, Jarman never seems brutalised. He retains his humanity and his good humour. His is a wonderfully garrulous, mercurial, polymathic daemon

    Literary Review

  • Jarman [is] the sort of troublemaking visionary who one day may be compared with Blake

    John Gill, Time Out

More in this Series

About the Author

Derek Jarman

Derek Jarman was born in London in 1942. His career spanned decades and genres, from painter, theatre designer, director, film maker, to poet, writer, campaigner and gardener. His features include Sebastiane (1976), Jubilee (1978), Caravaggio (1986), The Last of England (1987), Edward II (1991) and Blue (1993). His paintings – for which he was a Turner Prize nominee in 1986 – continue to be exhibited worldwide, and his garden in Dungeness remains a site of pilgrimage to fans and newcomers alike.

Derek Jarman

Related articles

/content/dam/prh/articles/adults/2020/march/ArticleCard-Bookmarks (1).jpg

Features

How a bookmark can transform your reading habits

Train tickets, love notes and... rashers of bacon?! What you find hidden between pages can be a source of unexpected delight.
/content/dam/prh/articles/adults/2019/december/VC_diaries_article_promo_safe_area.jpg

Recommendations

VINTAGE letters and diaries to inspire you

You already know that your favourite authors know how to wield a pen when it comes to writing fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, but have you ever read any of their personal writing? We’ve compiled a list of outstanding diarists and correspondents to inspire you to pick up a pen this year.
/content/dam/prh/articles/adults/2019/january/derek-jarman-article-promo.jpg

Features

Remembering Derek Jarman: AIDS activist, diarist, writer

Derek Jarman was 52 years old when he died of AIDS-related illnesses in February 1994. 25 years on, friends and writers reflect on the many aspects of his work, from filmmaking and gardening to AIDS awareness and gay rights activism.

Our Use of Cookies

We use cookies on this site to enable certain parts of the site to function and to collect information about your use of the site so that we can improve our visitors’ experience.

For more on our cookies and changing your settings click here

Strictly Necessary

Strictly Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions. See More.

Analytics

Analytics cookies help us to improve our website by collecting and reporting information on how you use it. These cookies may be set by us or by third-party providers whose services we have added to our pages. See More.

Preferences & Features

Preference and Feature cookies allow our website to remember choices you make, such as your language preferences and any customisations you make to pages on our website during your visit. See More.

Targeting / Advertising

Targeting cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you and your interests. They perform functions like preventing the same content from reappearing, ensuring ads are displayed and, in some cases, selecting content based on your interests. See More.