Heathcote Williams

Heathcote Williams was an English poet, actor and dramatist whose first book, The Speakers (1964), a study of London's Speakers' Corner, drew praise from Harold Pinter and was later adapted for the stage. His first full-length play, AC/DC, staged at the Royal Court in 1970, won the London Evening Standard's Most Promising Play Award and a John Whiting Award. He became known for book-length investigative poems on environmental themes, among them Whale Nation (1988), which Philip Hoare called the most powerful argument for the worldwide ban on whaling, along with Sacred Elephant and Autogeddon, both filmed by the BBC. On screen he played Prospero in Derek Jarman's The Tempest (1979) and appeared in Stormy Monday (1988), The Browning Version (1994), Blue Juice (1995), Cousin Bette (1998) and Basic Instinct 2 (2006). He also wrote lyrics, collaborating with Marianne Faithfull.