John Higgs

John Higgs
Born
John Higgs

1971 (age 52–53)[1]
Rugby, England
Occupation(s)Author
Journalist
Cultural Commentator
Websitejohnhiggs.com

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 1960s counterculture, exemplified by writers, artists and activists such as Timothy Leary, Robert Anton Wilson, Alan Moore and The KLF.

Career

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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

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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

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Biographies and history

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  • Exterminate/Regenerate: The Story of Doctor Who (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2025)
  • Love and Let Die: Bond, The Beatles and the British Psyche (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2022)[20] (Pegasus Books, 2023)[21]
  • William Blake vs the World (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2021)[22]
  • William Blake Now: Why He Matters More Than Ever (Hachette UK, 2019)[23]
  • The Future Starts Here: Adventures in the Twenty-First Century (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2019)
  • Watling Street: Travels Through Britain and Its Ever-Present Past (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2017)[24][25]
  • Stranger Than We Can Imagine: Making Sense of the Twentieth Century (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2016)[26]
  • Our Pet Queen: A New Perspective on Monarchy (Signal, 2014)[27]
  • 2000TC: Standing On The Verge Of Getting It On (2014), in a limited edition of 111 copies[28]
  • The KLF: Chaos, Magic and the Band who Burned a Million Pounds (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2013)[29]
  • I Have America Surrounded: The Life of Timothy Leary (The Friday Project, 2006)[30]

Fictional works as JMR Higgs

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  • The First Church on the Moon (The Big Hand Books, 2013)[31]
  • The Brandy of the Damned (The Big Hand Books, 2012)[32]

Contributor

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References

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  1. ^ Higgs, John (2019). The Future Starts Here: Adventures in the Twenty-First Century. Hachette UK. ISBN 978-1474609418. Chapter 6.
  2. ^ "Amazon.co.uk: John Higgs: Books, Biography, Blogs, Audiobooks, Kindle". www.amazon.co.uk. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  3. ^ "John Higgs". IMDb. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  4. ^ "John Higgs Video Game Credits and Biography". MobyGames. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  5. ^ "ATV: Quad Power Racing 2". Retrieved 8 January 2019 – via www.imdb.com.
  6. ^ "Crash 'N' Burn for PlayStation 2 (2004)". MobyGames. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  7. ^ "ATV: Quad Power Racing 2 for GameCube (2003)". MobyGames. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  8. ^ "John Higgs". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  9. ^ "Who actually created Marcel Duchamp's 'Fountain'?". The Independent. 8 September 2015. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  10. ^ "The Daily Mirror". mirror.co.uk. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  11. ^ Amazon: John Higgs
  12. ^ Lynskey, Dorian (2013-12-04). "The best music books of 2013". The Guardian. Retrieved 2023-09-12.
  13. ^ "'Illuminatus!' director's daughter returns to play that gave her". The Independent. 14 November 2014. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  14. ^ "The Play - Cosmic Trigger". cosmictriggerplay.com. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  15. ^ "Review: Cosmic Trigger". Confidentials. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  16. ^ Coveney, Michael (10 May 2017). "Cosmic Trigger: Ken Campbell's daughter captures Illuminatus! spirit in trippy epic". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 January 2019 – via www.theguardian.com.
  17. ^ Maxwell, Dominic (5 May 2017). "Daisy Campbell: 'My father was an overpowering, goading godlike being in my life'". Retrieved 8 January 2019 – via www.thetimes.co.uk.
  18. ^ "Cosmic Trigger - The Cockpit". thecockpit.org.uk. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  19. ^ Amazon:Cosmic Trigger
  20. ^ Reisz, Matthew (2022-09-05). "Love and Let Die by John Higgs review – Fab Four plus 007 doesn't quite add up". The Observer. Retrieved 2023-09-12.
  21. ^ Weingarten, Marc (2023-02-07). "Forget the Stones: Beatles vs. Bond was the real British rivalry, per a new book". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2023-09-12.
  22. ^ Glynn, Paul (2021-06-26). "William Blake: Biography offers glimpse into artist and poet's visionary mind". BBC News. Retrieved 26 June 2021.
  23. ^ Higgs, John (5 September 2019). William Blake Now by John Higgs. Orion. ISBN 9781474614344. Retrieved 12 September 2019.
  24. ^ Amazon
  25. ^ Higgs, John (13 July 2018). John Higgs - Watling Street. ISBN 9781474603492. Retrieved 8 January 2019 – via www.orionbooks.co.uk.
  26. ^ "Stranger Than We Can Imagine: Making Sense of the Twentieth Century: Amazon.co.uk: John Higgs: 9781780226576: Books". www.amazon.co.uk. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  27. ^ Amazon: Our Pet Queen
  28. ^ "2000 TC – John Higgs". John Higgs.com. Retrieved 1 August 2020.
  29. ^ The KLF: Chaos, Magic and the Band who Burned a Million Pounds: Amazon.co.uk: John Higgs: 9781780226552: Books. ASIN 1780226551.
  30. ^ I Have America Surrounded: The Life of Timothy Leary: Amazon.co.uk: John Higgs: 9781905548255: Books. ASIN 1905548257.
  31. ^ Amazon: The First Church on the Moon
  32. ^ Amazon: The Brandy of the Damned
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