Dancing Ledge: Journals vol. 1

Jarman’s first journal - preceding Modern Nature - is his candid coming-of-age memoir about being an art student, making his first films, and coming out in Britain in the 60s and 70s

‘What started as a book on the frustration of funding led to the writing of an autobiography at forty… I had so little to do in the daylight hours, I stayed up late unbuttoning Levis in back rooms.’

The first in Derek Jarman’s autobiographical journals, spanning the 60s and 70s to its publication in 1984. It also contains an introduction from Jarman written in 1991, then famous and publicly living with HIV. In non-linear snippets and including photographs of Jarman’s artwork, he describes his sexual awakening in post-war England, his early struggles to create and find recognition for his art, and vivid accounts of his friends, lovers, and inspirations. DANCING LEDGE is Jarman’s first steps in telling his life story, and already has the immediacy, colour, and candour that became his trademark style.