How one visionary inspired 200 years of art, poetry and protest...

Weaving between the historical, personal and cultural, award-winning author Philip Hoare reveals a web of creative minds and artistic iconoclasts fired with the revolutionary genius of William Blake.

In 1973, Derek Jarman set off from London to film the stones of Avebury. He was following in the footsteps of his hero, Paul Nash, who had photographed Dorset's ancient megaliths a generation before. Both artists had an overarching guiding star for whom the mysterious site was a utopian dream of a better world - a visionary who had died long ago yet remained electrically alive to them.

In this alluring and strange poetic odyssey, Philip Hoare traces the vast and enduring legacy of William Blake. Reaching out of the past and far into the future, Blake's work draws together the natural world and the metaphysical realms, launching his uproarious spirit into the lives of countless artists, filmmakers, poets, writers, musicians, eccentrics and rebels. That same spirit of protest and radicalism continues to inspire us today, with Blake's promise of absolute freedom and the possibility of positive change.

About the Author

Philip Hoare is the author of nine works of narrative non-fiction. His book, Leviathan, Or The Whale won the Samuel Johnson Prize. His most recent book, Albert & the Whale, prompted the New York Times to call the author 'a forceful weather system of his own'. He is curator of the digital Moby-Dick and the Ancient Mariner Big Reads, with readings from Tilda Swinton, David Attenborough, Willem Dafoe, Iggy Pop, Hilary Mantel, Marianne Faithfull, Jeanette Winterson, Fiona Shaw, Jeremy Irons, etc. In 2022 he curated Derek Jarman's Modern Nature with the John Hansard Gallery. He has collaborated with artists such as Pet Shop Boys, John Waters, Dorothy Cross and Ellen Gallagher, and is a regular contributor to the Guardian. He has been chased out of the water by killer whales, but still swims in the sea every day.

Reviews

Praise for Philip Hoare:

'Always original ... Always pushing from somewhere new' Olivia Laing

'Hoare writes with a beautiful and liquid assurance, luxuriantly at home in this half-modernist, half-conventional medium and capable of astonishingly realised visions of floating moments and sea encounters' Adam Nicholson

'He is poetic and precise' TLS

'Hoare has wonderful, almost child-like relish for colourful stories and incredible facts ... His passionate engagement will infect you' The Times

Book Information
ISBN 9780008534349
Author Philip Hoare
Format Hardback
Page Count 304
Imprint Fourth Estate Ltd
Publisher HarperCollins Publishers
Weight(grams) 270g
Dimensions(mm) 222mm * 141mm * 22mm