Reader

Josephine Hart

1942-2011

Josephine Hart was born and raised in Ireland. She was the first woman Director of Haymarket Publishing, presented Books by my Bedside for Thames TV, and founded Gallery Poets in the late 1980s. Her West End theatre productions included the award-winning Lorca’s ‘The House of Bernarda Alba’, Noel Coward’s ‘The Vortex’, Iris Murdoch’s ‘The Black Prince and ‘Let Us Go Then, You and I’, at the Lyric Theatre, the first ever West End production of T.S. Eliot poetry.

She is the author of the novels, ‘Damage’ (filmed by Louis Malle with Jeremy Irons and Juliet Binoche), ‘Sin’ (adapted by Theatre Blu), ‘Oblivion’, ‘The Stillest Day’ and ‘The Reconstructionist’ (filmed by Roberto Ando). Her three poetry collections, ‘Catching Life by the Throat’ (2006), ‘Words That Burn’ (2009) and ‘Life Saving: Why We Need Poetry’ (2012) were sent free of charge to all secondary schools in England. Her last novel, ‘The Truth about Love’ was published in 2009, whilst her first two novels – ‘Damage’ and ‘Sin’ – were re-published as Virago Modern Classics in 2011.

Josephine founded The Josephine Hart Poetry Hour at the British Library in 2004, which has since seen ‘great actors reading great poetry’ there and at The Abbey Theatre, Dublin, The Donmar Warehouse, The Hay Festival, The London Library, The National Theatre (London), The New York Public Library, The Mayfair & St James’s Literary Festival (as Partner) and Harvard and London Universities.

Readings

Josephine Hart: 'The Poetry Of W.B. Yeats'
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