A book about a life long obsession with whales inspired by the literary classic Moby-Dick has won the UK’s most prestigious non-fiction prize.

 

 Leviathan, or The Whale by Philip Hoare(Fourth Estate) was tonight named the winner of the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2009. 

 

Jacob Weisberg, one of America’s leading political journalists and commentators and chair of the judges, made the announcement at an awards ceremony held at King’s Place, London. He commented:

 

“What made Leviathan stand out in a shortlist of wonderful reads was Philip Hoare’s lifelong passion for his subject and his skill in making his readers share it. His prose is dream-like and rises to the condition of literature.”

 

After Herman Melville published his book Moby Dick in 1851, no one saw whales in quite the same way again, having created a modern myth out of an already legendary beast. But what is the true nature of the whale? Why does it fascinate us?

 

In Leviathan, Philip Hoare seeks to locate and identify his life-long obsession with this mythical creature of the sea. From his childhood fascination with the gigantic models of London’s Natural History Museum to adult encounters with the wild animals themselves, Philip Hoare has been obsessed with whales. Leviathan is a gripping voyage of discovery into the heart of this obsession and Moby-Dick, the book that inspired it. Travelling around the globe and taking the reader deep into the whale’s domain, Philip Hoare sheds light on our perennial fascination with whales, whose nature remains tantalizingly undiscovered.

 

“This is the book he [Philip Hoare] was born to write, a classic of its kind. What poetry there is here and what a balm for the soul” Rachel Cooke, The Observer

 

‘”Philip Hoare’s writing is quite untrammelled by convention and opens up astonishing views at every turn.” W.G. Sebald

 

“Insights and images rise in plumes from almost every page” Jonathan Bate, Sunday Telegraph

 

Philip Hoare is the author of several books, including Serious Pleasures: The Life of Stephen Tennant; Noel Coward; Oscar Wilde’s Last Stand; Spike Island; and England’s Lost Eden. He lives in Southampton, and frequently visits Cape Cod as a member of the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies as a volunteer on its humpback whale identification programme.

 

Formerly The BBC FOUR Samuel Johnson Prize, the change in name reflects the BBC’s commitment to broadcasting coverage of the prize on a special edition of BBC TWO’s The Culture Show featuring coverage of the contenders and an interview with Philip Hoare, which goes out tonight at 11.20pm.

 

 

 

 

 

Jacob Weisberg was joined on the judging panel by Dr Mark Lythgoeat University College London and Director of the Cheltenham Science Festival; Tim Marlow, writer, broadcaster and art historian and director of exhibitions at White Cube; Munira Mirza, Director of Policy, Arts, Culture and the Creative Industries at the Mayor of London’s office; and Sarah Sands, Deputy Editor at the London Evening Standard., neuroscientist

 

1999               Stalingrad by Antony Beevor (Penguin)

2000               Berlioz: Servitude and Greatness by David Cairns (The Penguin Press)

2001               The Third Reich: A New History by Michael Burleigh (Macmillan)

2002               Peacemakers: The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 by Margaret Macmillan (John Murray)

2005               Like a Fiery Elephant by Jonathan Coe (Picador)

2006               1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare by James Shapiro (Faber & Faber)

2007               Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran (Bloomsbury)

2008               The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale (Bloomsbury)

 

 

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