Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

There are few more complete examples of an artist's record of their own life than the intimately detailed and beautifully produced books that Derek Jarman created throughout his career.

Seen together they reveal the story of how he gathered, shaped and made concrete his ideas. Containing poetry, drawings, pressed flowers, photographs, scripts and notes, the sketchbooks are part autobiography and part social history, bursting with the energy and creativity of this groundbreaking artist. Wholly private during his lifetime, these precious books reveal the detailed planning - and creative and emotional engagement - behind each of his films.

This book collates the best of Jarman's sketchbooks to reveal his film-making process in more depth than ever before.

Contributions from people closely tied to Jarman's work bring to life the filmmaker's social circle and the cultural climate of Britain in the 1970s and 80s. Excerpts from early scripts, sketches and notes in particular ensure this is destined to be an essential work.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

In the foreword to this exquisitely executed book, actress Tilda Swinton describes the sketchbook for Jarman's film Caravaggio as "a movable brainbox: littered with painted and drawn images, snatches of dialogue, scored revisions, the typed pages of his latest screenplay draft, filigreed with the henna-like pattern of his. hieroglyphic handwriting. Part talisman, part private confessional, wholly unmediated raw dreamscape, reliable invisible friend and booster jet." Voluptuous works of art in themselves, these sketchbooks, taken from handmade books the filmmaker gave to the British Film Institute before his death in 1994, blend the written and visual, revealing the inner workings of the creative process and Jarman's evolution as a filmmaker, artist, and gardener. Editors Farthing and Webb-Ingall, a painter and film producer, respectively, say they are "like grimoires-books of magic and spells." However, these sketchbooks are also "experimental, ritualistic recipe books... [acting] as portable studios and storage spaces." Chapter introductions by Jon Savage, Andrew Logan, Toyah Willcox, Christopher Hobbs, James Mackay, Howard Sooley, and Neil Tennant, and especially the captions and epitaph by Jarman's partner, Keith Collins, enrich the pages, evoking the turbulent times through which Jarman created, and tenderly reminiscing on his extravagance, brilliance, kindness, and commitment to a life of art. 196 illus. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

CHOICE Review

Beautifully put together, Derek Jarman's Sketchbooks is essentially a coffee table art book that illustrates the talent and imagination of the legendary British filmmaker. The problem with the book is its purpose. Although the numerous, brilliantly shot photos of Jarman's collection of sketchbooks demonstrate that they were his creative base, the selection of sketchbook pages does little to illustrate how these visual images and snatches of dialogue eventually translated into Jarman's movies. One wonders if the only way that would be possible would be by looking at the entire sketchbook of Jarman's creative cinematic imagination. Jarman was indeed an influential filmmaker, a true auteur from the 1970s until his death in 1994. He was also a political provocateur and gay activist, critical of Thatcher's Britain. It is the personal essays of memory about Jarman, written by individuals such as Tilda Swinton, Neil Tennant, Andrew Logan and Toyah Willcox, that are perhaps most helpful in understanding the mechanics of Jarman's creative process. The book will be most appreciated by artists, though film scholars will also find value in it. Gorgeously realized, the volume demonstrates that Jarman was indeed a visual artist, calligrapher, and poet. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals. G. R. Butters Jr. Aurora University