Harrison, Tony (1937– )

English poet, translator, and dramatist. He caused controversy with his poem ‘V’ (1987), dealing with the desecration of his parents' grave by Liverpool football supporters, and the play The Blasphemers' Banquet (1989), which attacked (in the name of the writers Molière, Voltaire, Byron, and Omar Khayyam) the death sentence on British writer Salman Rushdie. He also translated and adapted the works of French writer Molière.

Born in Leeds and educated at Leeds university, Harrison's poetry includes Selected Poems (expanded edition; 1987), The Gaze of the Gorgon (1992; Whitbread Prize for Poetry), Black Daisies for the Bride (1993), The Shadow of Hiroshima and Other Film Poems (1995; winner of the William Heinemann Prize), and Laureate's Block (2000). Plays 3 was published in 1996.