Tony Harrison is one of the most popular and respected poets and verse writers for the stage working in Britain today. In his lucid critical study Joe Kelleher brings Harrison's diverse output together under coherent themes, from his early published verse The Loiners (1970), to his accomplished translation and adaptation of The Oresteia (1981), through to his recent work for stage and television including The Shadow of Hiroshima (1995). He pays particular critical and theoretical attention to the issues of autobiography, translation, testimony and remembrance, and to poetry's obligation to face up - publicly - to the 'worst things' of twentieth-century history. Joe Kelleher's book considers Harrison's work as that of a dramatic poet, in the widest sense, staging personal utterance upon the landscape of public concerns.