In the shadow of a nuclear power station, on a desert of shingles, sits a fisherman’s cottage with bright yellow windows. If you know anything of Derek Jarman – filmmaker, poet, gay rights activist – this somewhat bleak backdrop in the hamlet of Dungeness on the Kent coast will make sense. Acquainted or otherwise, allow Gilbert McCarragher’s new book to grant entry, for the very first time, to his sanctuary, Prospect Cottage.
Derek Jarman died of an AIDS-related illness in 1994 and was survivedby his long-term companion Keith Collins. The two shared a relationship easily recognised by the queer community: not sexual, but full of love and reciprocal devotion. It was Keith who cared for Jarman as his health failed, and Keith who was the caretaker of Prospect Cottage until his own death in 2018.
