Philip Hoare
Philip Hoare is a British writer, film-maker and curator. He won the 2009 Samuel Johnson Prize, now known as the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, for his work Leviathan, or the Whale.
Early life and education
Hoare was born Patrick Moore in Southampton. He chose the name Philip Hoare to avoid confusion with astronomer Patrick Moore:A Roman Catholic, he attended St Mary's Independent School, Southampton on a scholarship. He went on to St Mary's University, Twickenham.
Career
Music
In 1982–83, Hoare ran the record label Operation Twilight, a UK-based subsidiary of the Belgian label Les Disques du Crépuscule.2009 Samuel Johnson Prize
Hoare was the winner of the 2009 Samuel Johnson Prize, now known as the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, for his work Leviathan, or the Whale. The book, which describes a personal and societal fascination with whales, received praise. Jonathan Mirsky, writing for Literary Review, called the book "tremendous".Other work
Hoare has recorded podcasts for NPR, VICE and Al Jazeera Media Network. His curatorial work includes Derek Jarman's Modern Nature, and he contributed to the Victoria and Albert Museum's international touring exhibition, David Bowie Is.Hoare has written articles on whales, including one on the orca 'attacks' off the Iberian Peninsula in 2023. He is special ambassador for Whale and Dolphin Conservation, visiting fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, and lecturer at the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence.
As a writer, Hoare has represented the British Council in Berlin, Guadalajara, and Moscow.
Works
Hoare is the author of the following works of non-fiction:- Serious Pleasures: The Life of Stephen Tennant
- Noël Coward: A Biography
- Wilde's Last Stand: Decadence, Conspiracy, and the First World War
- Spike Island: The Memory of a Military Hospital, the story of Netley Hospital in Southampton
- The Ghosts of Netley
- England's Lost Eden: Adventures in a Victorian Utopia, about Mary Anne Girling and the New Forest Shakers
- Leviathan or, The Whale, which won the 2009 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction
- The Whale: In Search Of The Giants Of The Sea
- The Sea Inside
- RisingTideFallingStar
- Albert and the Whale: Albrecht Dürer and How Art Imagines Our World
- William Blake and the Sea Monsters of Love
Hoare has co-authored or contributed to the following publications:
- Essay on the evolution of class in the UK in a British Council pamphlet, Posh: The Evolution of the Traditional British Brand.
- An essay in Linder: Works 1976–2006, a collection about Linder Sterling.
- Gabriel Orozco, exhibition catalogue and texts, with Mark Godfrey.
- Pet Shop Boys, catalogue and texts, with Chris Heath.
- Introduction to David Austen .
- Foreword to Made in Southampton, a box-set of prints.
- Provenance, with Angela Cockayne, a response to Wunderkammen.
- Essay, "Something against nothing", in Tania Kovats .
- Dominion: A Whale Symposium .
- Essay in Malicious Damage: the Defaced Library Books of Kenneth Halliwell and Joe Orton,.
- Essay in Southampton: A City Lost... And Found, a collection of drawings by Eric Meadus.
- Record of a discussion between Hoare, Christopher Frayling and Mark Kermode on David Bowie's cultural impact, in David Bowie is the subject .
- Greetings from Darktown : an illustrator's miscellany, a collection of the work of Jonny Hannah, with texts by Hoare, Sheena Calvert and Peter Chrisp.
- Foreword to As is the sea, writing by students from the Royal College of Art.
- Another Green World – Linn Botanic Gardens: Encounters with a Scottish Arcadia, photographs by Alison Turnbull, text by Hoare.