About the Author:
Philip Hoare was born and brought up in Southampton. He is the author of four previous books: Serious Pleasures: The Life of Stephen Tennant (1990), Noel Coward: A Biography (1995), Wilde's Last Stand: Decadence, Conspiracy & the First World War (1997), and Spike Island: Memories of a Military Hospital (2001). Philip is a regular contributor to television, radio and print media, reviewing for the Independent, Observer and the TLS. His film on Hampshire for BBC 2's 'Travels with Pevsner' was acclaimed as 'masterful' by the Daily Telegraph. Philip has also curated an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, and has spoken at literary festivals in Birmingham, Cheltenham and Charleston, at the National Portrait and Tate galleries, and the Royal Festival Hall.
Review:
Praise for SPIKE ISLAND 'Spike Island is a book that has everything a passionate reader could possibly want -- a subject that far transcends the trivial pursuits of contemporary writing, concerns both public and private, astonishing details, stylistic precision, a unique sense of time and place, and a great depth of vision.' W.G.SEBALD Sunday Telegraph Books of the Year 'A psychological study of horror and spiritual displacement: human vulnerability pitted against the institutional administration of violence ! Philip Hoare's deeply personal foray into the past is a tour-de-force.' Michael Bracewell, Independent on Sunday 'Spike Island -- elaborate, riveting, touching, strangely romantic -- is itself a gothic tale ! few could combine such rigorous scholarly accuracy with Hoare's narrative flair.' Observer 'Gruesome, startling, grainily authentic, as if Hoare were inching his way through history's dark wood with a hand-held camera, reporting what he sees in close-miked voiceover. Spike Island comes as near as it is possible to get to a scholarly equivalent of The Blair Witch Project.' Hilary Spurling, Daily Telegraph
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