Poet Tony Harrison, Beeston born and bred

Last year, in September 2025, Tony Harrison died.

He was born and grew up in Beeston in a working-class family. His father was a baker and his mother a ‘homemaker’. From an early age he was clever, being able to read before he went to school. He won a scholarship to Leeds Grammar School which allowed a few free places to gifted children. He went on to Leeds University reading Classics.

Harrison wrote numerous plays based on ancient Greek stories, perhaps the most famous being ‘Lysistrata’. But perhaps he will be remembered mostly for his poem ‘V’.

He was always conscious of the big divide between the poverty and hardships working people had and those whose lives were easy because of wealth. He wrote ‘V’ after visiting Holbeck Cemetery during the time of the miners’ strike to find graffiti on the gravestone of his parents and beer cans strewn around it. The Cemetery was a shortcut route from Elland Road to where many Leeds United supporters lived. At the time Leeds were huge rivals of Derby, a particular soccer team he mentioned in ‘V’.

V stands for ‘versus’ or perhaps ‘victory’ or perhaps ‘verses’?

He writes:

These Vs are the versuses of life
from LEEDS versus DERBY, Black/White
and (as I have known to my cost) man v. wife
Communist v. Fascist, Left v. Right

I visited Holbeck Cemetery and was immediately struck with the contrast between the ornate memorials of the well-to-do and those of poor people. In one corner of the Cemetery there are 46 “Guinea Graves” where poor people were buried along with nine other strangers in the same grave at a cost of a guinea each (£1.1shilling, now £1.05p). The names were engraved on the gravestones along with how old they were when they died. Not many of the names lived to an old age and what I found particularly sad were the names of babies with their age in months. The guinea graves date from 1857 to as late as 1940.

The contrast was a score or more of very elaborate monuments with obelisks abounding on most of them. The biggest and most ornate of these, now a grade II listed monument, was a family grave starting with Rowland Marsden JP who was the Mayor of Leeds 1874-75.

He died in 1875 so perhaps he did not outlive his term of office. Marsden made his money from inventing and manufacturing a stone crusher. On top of the monument is a sculpture of a figure kneeling at a lectern.

In 1987 Channel 4 televised the reading of ‘V’ which is full of four-letter words and this prompted a debate of censure in Parliament. However, better knowledge and understanding of the poem has led to it now being included in A level examinations.

The poem discusses the social division between them and us and losing contact with our roots.

In 2004, after the ward boundary changes I moved from representing Holbeck (which had included some of Hunslet) to Hunslet Ward. One of the first problems my colleagues and I had was the proposal by the then City Council to demolish the wonderful Hunslet Library built in the Art Deco style.

Council officers told us a load of rubbish such as the roof, which was letting in water, was irreparable. At the time, each councillor was given a large amount of money to spend on capital projects in their wards. My colleagues and I wished to spend ours on restoring the Library. The ruling coalition of parties running the Council, refused to effect repairs and actually took some of the money away from us because we had not spent it!

I wrote to Tony Harrison asking him to support our campaign to save the Library. He sent me a very nice postcard wishing me well in the campaign but regretted that he was suffering from ill-health and could not take on any more work. I have kept that card and treasure it.

My party regained control of the Council in 2010 and repairs and restoration of the Library took place. It is now so attractive that Council organisations situated outside the building applied to move in. The number of visitors and readers increased.

This was a classic division of them and us by political parties forgetting their roots!

This post was written by Hon Alderwoman Elizabeth Nash

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