Il Vampiro di Highgate

 

Kevin Jackson Dies

The English writer, broadcaster, filmmaker and pataphysician, Kevin Jackson, born 3 January 1955, died last week on 10 May 2021. He was the author of Bite: Diary of a Vampire Housewife (2009), Bite: Pavane for a Vampire Queen (2011), and Bite: A Vampire Handbook (2010).

He was educated at the Emanuel School, Battersea, and Pembroke College, Cambridge. After teaching in the English Department of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, he joined the BBC, first as a producer in radio and then as a director of short documentaries for television. In 1987 he was recruited to the Arts pages of The Independent. He had been a freelance writer since the early 1990s and then became a regular contributor to BBC radio programmes, including the BBC Fourth Programme's Saturday Review.

Jackson often collaborated on projects in various media: with, among others, the film-maker Kevin Macdonald, with whom he co-produced a Channel 4 documentary on Humphrey Jennings, The Man Who Listened to Britain (2000); with the cartoonist Hunt Emerson, on comic strips about the history of Western occultism for Fortean Times, on two comics inspired by John Ruskin (published by the Ruskin Foundation) and on a book-length version of Dante's Inferno (Knockabout Books, 2102); with the musician and composer Colin Minchin (lyrics for various songs, and the rock opera Bite, first staged in West London, October 2011); and with the songwriter Peter Blegvad (short surreal plays for BBC's Third Programme – eartoons). Jackson also conducted a long biographical interview with Blegvad, published by Atlas Press in September 2011 as The Bleaching Stream. Jackson appeared, under his own name, as a semi-fictional character in Iain Sinclair's account of a pedestrian journey around the M25, London Orbital. Worple Press published his book of interviews with Sinclair, The Verbals in 2002.

He was among the founder members of the London Institute of Pataphysics, and holds the Ordre de la Grande Gidouille from the College de Pataphysique in Paris. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Companion of the Guild of St George. From 2009–2011 he was Visiting Professor in English at University College, London.

Spectre of Haunted Highgate

The Ecker Offence

 

"I've just packaged it up for you Don, and will post tomorrow. I might as well put Pact with the Devil in with it as well, but the other thing will come a little later. Boy! will you have some fun. For now, David [Farrant]."

"David ... I can HARDLY WAIT!" panted Don Ecker.

David Farrant commented further (on his blog) for the benefit of those who read it:

"I heard from my friend American Radio Broadcaster, Don Ecker, to say he received the two books I sent him last week, and he has read them.  I better not repeat what he said here, but let’s just say I don’t think he has a very high opinion of ‘nutters’ who go around wearing teas pot cosies!"

The infantile reference to "tea pot cosies" is a coded allusion to a Catholic priest or bishop's biretta.

Anthony Hogg had the same insulting comment posted by Don Ecker on his Facebook page. Antipodean Hogg responded:

"G'day Don. Good to hear from you! Yeah, he's a troublesome, dodgy sort. Leaves a nice trail of buffoonery behind him. This is the latest example."

Recovering stolen intellectual property, according to Hogg, was now to be regarded as "buffoonery."

On his own self-congratulatory blog, Don Ecker made any number of personal attacks on Bishop Manchester with the mandatory stolen images to accompany each malicious swipe. On an entry titled "Is the Bishop a Nutter?" Don Ecker's true colours reveal themselves, as he barely contains himself:

"Now, let me tell you a little bit about the guy that shoveled all that shit out there……. Sean Manchester" Don Ecker begins, and it is not long before we are being treated to more of his remarkable eloquence: "Well, I almost popped a blood vessel. ... This was after Manchester, under an assumed computer user identity, accused me of being an 'American War-Monger' because of my Viet Nam service. As I said later, I was soooooo happy I was here (So. Calf.) and not there (England-UK) because I just wouldn’t trust myself if I happened to 'bump' into good ol’ Sean. ... So remember Sean, it is never a good idea to go out of your way to piss someone off who buys ink by the gallon and spend their spare time in front of a radio microphone. It will come back to bite you …. you Holy Joe … you."

In fact, Bishop Manchester has never had any contact whatsoever with Don Ecker. It was a female PA who referred to Ecker as a "war monger." This came about following Ecker turning really nasty after he approached her to arrange a radio interview with the bishop. Don Ecker had been desperately trying to interview Bishop Manchester for years until he finally gave up and settled for David Farrant who managed to lead the American up the garden path with very little difficulty. The threat from Don Ecker of what he would do if he bumped into the bishop is very typical of this vulgar American.

David Farrant started posting his familiar abuse on the blog comments at the invitation of Don Ecker. Then some balancing commentary appeared courtesy of a supporter of the bishop until the man who claims the American Constitution's first amendment allows him to say what he likes, using stolen images in the process, decided that "free speech" was to be curtailed if an opinion other than his own was being heard. The comments' section abruptly ended with this statement:

"Hear Ye This! Further comments on this topic are CLOSED! If you all wish to continue, do so on Mr. Farrants blog, Net Curtain Lurkers, The Pussy Meows, or where ever. I no longer am accepting further comments here. Don Ecker, Administrator."

Don Ecker wrote a vampire novel many years ago which he constantly plugged thereafter. It appeared a decade after the first edition of The Highgate Vampire was published to great acclaim. Indeed, Ecker purchased a copy of the bishop's non-fiction work. His own less than successful first (and last) attempt at writing a book might have caused some envy towards the author of The Highgate Vampire whose book still remains a bestseller in its category, and has been under option for a major cinema film. The trouble with Don Ecker's novel is that it reflects the man and his poor command of the English language with a tedious story that is almost impossible to read. If the amateurish presentation of language fails to put the reader off, the absence of any convincing or coherent storyline certainly will.

Envy, coupled with the fact that Don Ecker has failed at every attempt to interview Bishop Manchester to boost the ratings of his self-serving radio show, is probably the reason the man finally turned to publishing libel. It is no more than you would expect from an uncouth bully who can't get his own way.

As Hallowe'en approached, Don Ecker decided it was time to interview David Farrant again via the telephone. It was only a matter of minutes before both engaged in an unadulterated hate-fest where each sought to outdo the other in a mad scramble to introduce fabrications and lies. As Ecker struggled to lead a hesitant Farrant into fresh areas of calumny, it was not long before their joint defamation of character reached a disgusting low. More than three quarters of the interview was devoted entirely to issuing malicious falsehood about the bishop; mocking and ridiculing him while declaring him mentally deranged. This from one of them, Farrant, whom psychiatrists appointed by the courts in the UK had difficulty in agreeing whether he was sane enough to stand trial. Ecker made the startling admission that if the bishop is a Christian, then he would rather be on the Devil's side. We thought he already was!