Philip Hoare’s publications include biographies of Stephen Tennant (1990) and Noël Coward (1995), as well as Wilde’s Last Stand (1997), Spike Island (2001), England’s Lost Eden (2005) and The Sea Inside (2013). His book Leviathan or, The Whale won the 2009 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. His latest book, RISINGTIDEFALLINGSTAR was published in 2017.
An experienced broadcaster, curator and filmmaker, Hoare wrote and presented the BBC Arena film The Hunt for Moby-Dick. He is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Southampton, and curator of the Moby-Dick Big Read, a free, online rendition of Melville’s novel, with readings by Tilda Swinton, Stephen Fry, David Attenborough, Fiona Shaw, Simon Callow and John Waters, amongst others.
