Month: July 2017

RISINGTIDEFALLINGSTAR

Philip Hoare

Philip Hoare writes about the sea. A lot. He won the Samuel Johnson prize for his book Leviathan, about his fascination with whales and Moby-Dick, and followed it up with The Sea Inside, which I reviewed here. His latest book ranges from memories of childhood trips to the seaside to accounts of how various cultural figures, from Shelley and Byron to Wilfred Owen and David Bowie, have loved and loathed water. It’s a really terrific book, full of great stories and a tremendous feel for the power and thrill of the sea. Here’s my Sunday Times review

Reviews round-up

OK, so I’ve been a bit slack in updating this these past few weeks, but I’ve done a number of reviews recently, as follows:

 

Andrew O'Hagan

Andrew O’Hagan’s book of essays (previously published in the London Review of Books) includes a brilliant account of his abortive attempt to ghostwrite a memoir by Julian Assange. Here’s my Sunday Times review

 

Brenda Maddox

I’ve spent a lot of time on the Jurassic Coast in Dorset, but have never found a dinosaur skeleton, as Mary Anning did in 1811. Brenda Maddox’s book is about the Victorian geologists like Anning who changed the way we looked at the world – proving for example that it is much older than anyone thought and thus challenging Christian orthodoxy. My Sunday Times review is here

 

Amanda Craig

 

And finally, I very much enjoyed Amanda Craig’s latest novel and reviewed it here for the Literary Review.