Jackson was determined to unearth deeper truths about the actor than he usually disclosed during interviews. Harris had manipulated the media all his life , largely to keep people from getting to really know him.

However, by the time that interview ended, they had become firm friends . It was only then that Jackson told Harris, ‘I want to show the public that there is far more to you than your superficial image as a boozing brawling womaniser.’ Harris loved the idea and two years later he asked Jackson to write his biography. Richard Harris: Raising Hell and Reaching for Heaven is that biography. But it is much more besides.

Based on a searingly on a series of interviews Jackson recorded with Harris between 1987 and 2001, plus the author’s journal entries and extensive notes, this book is also a part -memoir that turns a highly personal and moving back story about why it was inevitable that Jackson and Harris would connect at the deepest possible level. This book will finally prove beyond a doubt that there was far more to Richard Harris, indisputably one of Ireland’s greatest actors, as well as a Grammy-award winning recording artist and a published poet, than has ever been revealed.