John Higgs Explained

John Higgs
Birth Name:John Higgs
Birth Date:[1]
Birth Place:Rugby, England
Occupation:Author
Journalist
Cultural Commentator

John Higgs is an English writer, novelist, journalist and cultural historian. The work of Higgs has been published in the form of novels (under the pseudonym JMR Higgs), biographies and works of cultural history.[2]

In particular, Higgs has written about the so-called counterculture, exemplified by writers, artists and activists such as Timothy Leary, Robert Anton Wilson, Alan Moore and The KLF.

Career

Higgs began as a director of children’s television and was BAFTA-nominated for pre-school animation[3] before going on to create and produce the BBC Radio 4 quiz X Marks the Spot. At Climax Group studios he was videogame producer[4] for games that appeared on Xbox, PS2 and GameCube[5] including Crash 'n' Burn[6] and ATV Quad Power Racing.[7]

Higgs has written for The Guardian,[8] The Independent,[9] The Daily Mirror[10] and Mojo magazine.

As an author, Higgs has written the novels The First Church on the Moon and The Brandy of the Damned; biographies of Timothy Leary and The KLF; and works of history and cultural analysis.[11] His book The KLF: Chaos, Magic and the Band who Burned a Million Pounds was named one of the best music books of 2013 by The Guardian.[12]

In 2023, Higgs collaborated with musician Ian Broudie on Broudie's memoir Tomorrow's Here Today.In 2024 Higgs co-founded the East Sussex Psychedelic Film Club with Richard Norris and Andy Starke.

Higgs' next book, Exterminate/Regenerate: The Story of Doctor Who, is due to be published in 2025.

Born in Rugby, Higgs grew up in Buckley, North Wales and now lives with his family in Brighton.

Robert Anton Wilson, Illuminatus! and Cosmic Trigger

In his 2013 book, KLF, Higgs’s interest in the American counter culture writer Robert Anton Wilson led to him writing about the stage play version of Wilson's The Illuminatus! Trilogy books as directed by Ken Campbell and which were performed at the National Theatre in 1977. During Higgs’s research, he interviewed Campbell’s wife, the actress Prunella Gee, and learned that their daughter, Daisy Eris Campbell, was at the time thinking about staging a theatrical version of Wilson's Cosmic Trigger. Higgs supported and championed the production of the play with various talks around the country and the play was eventually staged in Liverpool and London in 2014[13] [14] [15] and staged again at The Cockpit Theatre in London in 2017.[16] [17] [18]

Higgs involvement in the Cosmic Trigger play led to Robert Anton Wilson's estate – the Robert Anton Wilson Trust – to ask him to write an introduction for a new edition of Cosmic Trigger: The Final Secret of the Illuminati, published by the Wilson estate's new imprint, Hilaritas Press, in 2016.[19]

Books

Biographies and history

Travels Through Britain and Its Ever-Present Past (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2017)[24] [25]

Fictional works as JMR Higgs

Contributor

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Higgs . John . The Future Starts Here: Adventures in the Twenty-First Century . 2019 . Hachette UK . 978-1474609418. Chapter 6.
  2. Web site: Amazon.co.uk: John Higgs: Books, Biography, Blogs, Audiobooks, Kindle. www.amazon.co.uk. 8 January 2019.
  3. Web site: John Higgs. IMDb. 8 January 2019.
  4. Web site: John Higgs Video Game Credits and Biography. MobyGames. 8 January 2019.
  5. Web site: ATV: Quad Power Racing 2. 8 January 2019. www.imdb.com.
  6. Web site: Crash 'N' Burn for PlayStation 2 (2004). MobyGames. 8 January 2019.
  7. Web site: ATV: Quad Power Racing 2 for GameCube (2003). MobyGames. 8 January 2019.
  8. Web site: John Higgs . 8 January 2019 . The Guardian.
  9. Web site: Who actually created Marcel Duchamp's 'Fountain'?. 8 September 2015. The Independent. 8 January 2019.
  10. Web site: The Daily Mirror. mirror.co.uk. 8 January 2019.
  11. https://www.amazon.co.uk/John-Higgs/e/B0086FBMYE/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0 Amazon: John Higgs
  12. News: Lynskey . Dorian . 2013-12-04 . The best music books of 2013 . en-GB . The Guardian . 2023-09-12.
  13. Web site: 'Illuminatus!' director's daughter returns to play that gave her. 14 November 2014. The Independent. 8 January 2019.
  14. Web site: The Play - Cosmic Trigger. cosmictriggerplay.com. 8 January 2019.
  15. Web site: Review: Cosmic Trigger. Confidentials. 8 January 2019.
  16. News: Cosmic Trigger: Ken Campbell's daughter captures Illuminatus! spirit in trippy epic. Michael. Coveney. The Guardian . 10 May 2017. 8 January 2019. www.theguardian.com.
  17. News: Daisy Campbell: 'My father was an overpowering, goading godlike being in my life'. Dominic. Maxwell. 5 May 2017. 8 January 2019. www.thetimes.co.uk.
  18. Web site: Cosmic Trigger - The Cockpit. thecockpit.org.uk. 8 January 2019.
  19. https://www.amazon.com/Cosmic-Trigger-Final-Secret-Illuminati/dp/0692513973/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= Amazon:Cosmic Trigger
  20. News: Reisz . Matthew . 2022-09-05 . Love and Let Die by John Higgs review – Fab Four plus 007 doesn't quite add up . en-GB . The Observer . 2023-09-12 .
  21. Web site: Weingarten . Marc . 2023-02-07 . Forget the Stones: Beatles vs. Bond was the real British rivalry, per a new book . 2023-09-12 . Los Angeles Times . en-US.
  22. Web site: Glynn . Paul . William Blake: Biography offers glimpse into artist and poet's visionary mind . BBC News . 26 June 2021 . 2021-06-26.
  23. Book: William Blake Now by John Higgs . 9781474614344. 12 September 2019. Higgs. John. 5 September 2019. Orion .
  24. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Watling-Street-Travels-Through-Ever-Present/dp/1474603475/ref=as_sl_pc_as_ss_li_til?linkCode=w00&linkId=7c474fd708a7da7c517f328fcde075d9&creativeASIN=1474603475 Amazon
  25. Book: John Higgs - Watling Street. 13 July 2018 . 9781474603492 . 8 January 2019. www.orionbooks.co.uk. Higgs . John .
  26. Web site: Stranger Than We Can Imagine: Making Sense of the Twentieth Century: Amazon.co.uk: John Higgs: 9781780226576: Books. www.amazon.co.uk. 8 January 2019.
  27. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Our-Pet-Queen-Perspective-Monarchy-ebook/dp/B00MKZBV7Y/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1500816416&sr=1-5 Amazon: Our Pet Queen
  28. Web site: 2000 TC – John Higgs . John Higgs.com . 1 August 2020.
  29. Book: The KLF: Chaos, Magic and the Band who Burned a Million Pounds: Amazon.co.uk: John Higgs: 9781780226552: Books. .
  30. Book: I Have America Surrounded: The Life of Timothy Leary: Amazon.co.uk: John Higgs: 9781905548255: Books. .
  31. https://www.amazon.co.uk/First-Church-Moon-Jmr-Higgs-x/dp/0956416330/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=MGP6S3P8GN89RZDZTV2H Amazon: The First Church on the Moon
  32. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brandy-Damned-JMR-Higgs/dp/0956416357/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1500817581&sr=1-1&keywords=jmr+higgs Amazon: The Brandy of the Damned

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "John Higgs".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.