Philip Hoare

Marking the fortieth anniversary of Please, the duo's first album release, the instant Sunday Times bestseller Pet Shop Boys Volume presents their entire visual output to date in a contemporary literary format. Pet Shop Boys - Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe - are the most successful duo in the history of pop music. Three-time Brit Award winners and six-time Grammy nominees, they have sold more than 50 million records worldwide, including No. 1 hits such as 'West End girls', 'It's a sin', and 'Always on my mind', and platinum-selling albums Please, Actually, and Very. Uniquely spanning the worlds of music, art, film, theatre, design, and fashion, Pet Shop Boys have forged an identity as unforgettable as their sound. From the seminal graphic design of their record sleeves to their groundbreaking videos and innovative stage shows, they have set the bar for the visual presentation of pop. Celebrating the fortieth anniversary of the release of their first album in 1986, Pet Shop Boys Volume is the definitive retrospective of the duo's career. Expanding upon Pet Shop Boys Catalogue, published two decades ago, it presents their entire visual output to date, year by year. Sleeve artworks and packaging, stills from every video, film, and performance, stage sets and costume designs, photoshoots, publications, and even Christmas cards all feature, as does every collaboration with luminaries including Mark Farrow, Wolfgang Tillmans, Martin Parr, Bruce Weber, Sam Taylor-Johnson, Derek Jarman, Scott King, Zaha Hadid, Tom Scutt, and Es Devlin. Concise commentaries by Chris Heath and Philip Hoare provide illuminating insights into the genesis of each project. Hoare's original introduction is accompanied by a new introduction from Libby Sellers who considers the importance of Pet Shop Boys within the history of design, while a new foreword by Jeremy Deller reflects on the enduring impact of their music and image. With a jacket designed by Farrow and a new conversation between Heath, Tennant, and Lowe, Pet Shop Boys Volume is a visual feast and a sumptuous tribute to four decades of creative innovation.

Named a BOOK OF THE YEAR by The Times and Sunday Times, New Statesman, Spectator, Prospect, and New Yorker. ‘Undoubtedly Hoare’s masterpiece’ Olivia Laing ‘Queer in all senses of the word’ Neil Tennant ‘A life-changing book’ Robert Douglas Fairhurst, The Times ‘Fabulously idiosyncratic’ Lucy Hughes-Hallett, New Statesman ?How one visionary inspired 200 years of art, poetry, and protest. Weaving between the historical, cultural and personal, award-winning author Philip Hoare reveals a web of creative minds and artistic iconoclasts fired with the wild and 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 Paul Nash, who had photographed the ancient megaliths a generation before. Standing in that muddy field, by those stones, both artists had felt a direct connection to their hero – a man who had died a long, long time ago, yet who remained electrically alive to them. In this alluring and poetic odyssey, Philip Hoare traces the enduring legacy of William Blake and how he came to inspire so many creative lives. Reaching out of his past and into our future, Blake draws together the natural world and metaphysical realms, merging the human and the animal and the spiritual, firing up twentieth-century artists, filmmakers, poets, writers and musicians with his radical promise of absolute freedom. This stirring, deeply felt book brings us back to Blake and shows that art still has the power to create positive change. ‘A book that is neither Blake biography nor critical analysis nor legacy-tracing nor personal odyssey but a capacious mixing of them all … a joyful and dizzying romp’ Philip Marsden, Spectator ‘This love letter to William Blake couldn’t be more eccentric … Philip Hoare’s weird and wonderful style soars in this study of the poet and his disciples’ Ian Sansom, Telegraph ‘Hoare’s impassioned style, alive with metaphor and wordplay, has often been called “dreamlike”. This is apt, given his total immersion in his subject … Nothing will be as audacious or intriguing as William Blake and the Sea Monsters of Love’ Jenny Uglow, Times Literary Supplement

How one visionary inspired 200 years of art, poetry, and protest…Weaving between the historical, cultural and personal, award-winning author Philip Hoare reveals a web of creative minds and artistic iconoclasts fired with the wild and revolutionary genius of William Blake.‘A life-changing book’ The Times, Book of the Week‘A poetic fever dream’Telegraph‘Queer in all senses of the word’ Neil Tennant‘Undoubtedly Hoare’s masterpiece’ Olivia LaingIn 1973, Derek Jarman set off from London to film the stones of Avebury. He was following in the footsteps of Paul Nash, who had photographed the ancient megaliths a generation before. Standing in that muddy field, by those stones, both artists had felt a direct connection to their hero – a man who had died a long, long time ago, yet who remained electrically alive to them.In this alluring and poetic odyssey, Philip Hoare traces the enduring legacy of William Blake and how he came to inspire so many creative lives. Reaching out of his past and into our future, Blake draws together the natural world and metaphysical realms, merging the human and the animal and the spiritual, firing up twentieth-century artists, filmmakers, poets, writers and musicians with his radical promise of absolute freedom. This stirring, deeply felt book brings us back to Blake and shows that art still has the power to create positive change.‘A book that is neither Blake biography nor critical analysis nor legacy-tracing nor personal odyssey but a capacious mixing of them all … a joyful and dizzying romp through the stories of those who came under Blake’s posthumous spell’ Philip Marsden,Spectator ‘Beneath the leaps and returns, the book is skilfully structured, following Blake’s life and art, and rendering all the inset lives complete, however discontinuous they appear … One can foresee a rush of books in the run-up to 2027, the bicentenary of Blake’s death, but nothing will be as audacious or intriguing as William Blake and the Sea Monsters of Love’ Jenny Uglow, TLS