V

Tony Harrison's v. was written during the Miners' Strike of 1984-85 when he visited his parents' grave in a Leeds cemetery and found it vandalised by obscene graffiti. In the book-length poem, he confronts the foul-mouthed skinhead thug responsible, who becomes a foil for his own anger and alienation. Channel Four's film of v. won the Royal Television Society's Best Original Programme Award and prompted extreme political and media reaction documented in the book's second edition (1989). The original edition (1985) included photographs by Graham Sykes.