ABSTRACT
This book started off with an MBE, which Harvey received in July 2013. It finishes with a degree. On 10 September 2014 she accepted an honorary award from Goldsmiths, University of London, along with Neal Ascherson (writer and journalist), Dame Zaha Hadid (architect) and Martin Rowson (cartoonist), George Szirtes (poet) and Peter Tatchell (LGBT rights campaigner). Both the conservative and the radical establishments applaud her, both the nation and an intellectual, artistic institution that is London’s Goldsmiths, recognize her. Having conducted poetry readings at the British Museum and guest edited Radio 4, she is being taken into the folds of the intellectual elite. It is even tempting to start thinking about her as a ‘national treasure’ (Wearing, 2012), whereby she is rehabilitated from the wilds of the independent music shores to take part in a shared cultural life, considered ‘an asset because of accrued wisdom and experience’ (Dolan and Tinknell, 2013).
