Philip Hoare

For the English cricketer, see Philip Hoare (cricketer).

Philip Hoare
Born	Patrick K. Moore 1958 Southampton, England, UK
Nationality	British
Occupation	Writer
Website	Philip Hoare's homepage

Philip Hoare (born Patrick Moore; 1958) is the author of seven works of non-fiction: Serious Pleasures: The Life of Stephen Tennant (1990) and Noël Coward: A Biography (1995), Wilde’s Last Stand: Decadence, Conspiracy, and the First World War (1997), Spike Island: The Memory of a Military Hospital (2000), and England’s Lost Eden: Adventures in a Victorian Utopia (2005). Leviathan or, The Whale (2008), won the 2009 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. He has also written The Sea Inside (2013).

Hoare was born in Southampton and attended St Mary's College. He wrote and presented the BBC Arena film The Hunt for Moby-Dick, and directed three films for BBC’s Whale Night. He is Visiting Fellow at Southampton University, and Leverhulme Artist-in-residence at the Marine Institute, Plymouth University, which awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2011. His latest book, The Sea Inside, was published by Fourth Estate in June 2013.

He has been interested by cetaceans since early childhood and between 2011–12, this self-professed 'whale obsession' led him to create the Moby Dick Big Read. The project, curated by Hoare and artist Angela Cockayne, involved the construction of an online audiobook of all 135 chapters of Herman Melville's classic 'Moby Dick; or, the Whale'. The readings were delivered by a multitude of celebrities, including Tilda Swinton, Stephen Fry, Sir David Attenborough, John Waters, Simon Callow and David Cameron, and accompanied by images from contemporary artists such as Anish Kapoor, Antony Gormley, George Shaw and Susan Hiller. The readings were uploaded to the Moby Dick Big Read website, with one chapter available for download per day from 16 September 2012. All downloads are free but donations are invited to 'Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society' (WDCS). Hoare is a contributor to the animal news site,The Dodo.

The name Philip Hoare was adopted to avoid confusion with astronomer Patrick Moore. "Imagine having to spend your entire life living with people asking: 'You're not that astronomer, are you?' Or: 'Do you play the xylophone?' Another reason was that when I was managing bands I used to review my own bands for the NME and Sounds as Philip Hoare. Philip was my confirmation name; Hoare my mother's maiden name."

In 1982–83, he ran the record label Operation Twilight, a UK-based subsidiary of the Belgian Les Disques du Crépuscule, which launched the career of the Pale Fountains. In 2009 he exhibited artworks made with Angela Cockagne at Viktor Wynd Fine Art Inc in London

Publications

• Serious Pleasures: The Life of Stephen Tennant (1990)
• Noel Coward: A Biography (1995)
• The Sayings of Noel Coward (1997)
• Wilde's Last Stand: Decadence, Conspiracy and the First World War (1997)
• Spike Island: The Memory of a Military Hospital (2001)
• "Pet Shop Boys - Release" (2002)
• The Ghosts of Netley (2004)
• England’s Lost Eden: Adventures in a Victorian Utopia (2005)
• Linder Works 1976–2006 (with Jon Savage, Lynne Tillman, Paul Bayley, Andrew Renton and Morrissey) (2006)
• Gabriel Orozco (with Mark Godfrey) (2006)
• Pet Shop Boys: Catalogue (with Chris Heath) (2006)
• Leviathan or, The Whale (2008)
• "The Whale: In Search Of The Giants Of The Sea" (2010)
• The Sea Inside (2013)

External links

• Articles by Philip Hoare on the 5th Estate blog
• 2008 profile
• 2005 profile
• Moby Dick Big Read
• The Whale blogsite