Spike Island: The Memory of a Military Hospital - Softcover

Hoare invests his tale with a gothic splendour, from the introductory history of the nearby Cistercian abbey that subsequently inspired operas, prints and tales, to his own pre-occupations, as a youth, with Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast, David Bowie and then punk. At times he wears a brooding decadence on his sleeve like chevrons, as befits the author of Noel Coward and Wilde's Last Stand, but by bolstering his narrative with personal ballast, revealing intimate glimpses of growing up in a backwater, and the deaths of his brother and father, he also provides an evocation of the suburbs comparable to Edward Platt's Leadville. To a rewarding degree a reconciliation of Hoare with his origins and childhood environs, Spike Island speaks of the nature of fear and creeping memory, and lingers in the mind as hauntingly as the ghostly, shadowy presences it so movingly traces.--David Vincent

‘“Spike Island” has kept me company these past few days. It is an astonishing book not only for what it contains but also for its synoptic vision and for its wonderful prose style. If 10% of the population read it, the place we live in would be much improved’. W.G.Sebald

‘Philip Hoare’s deeply personal foray into the past is a tour-de-force'.’ Michael Bracewell, Independent on Sunday

‘The story of the Royal Victoria Hospital is a fascinating one, and Mr Hoare’s book extremely valuable.’ Anthony Daniels, Sunday Telegraph

‘Hoare develops a gothic theme that marries glamour with morbidity and runs throughout the work...His literary tones – ghostly, haunting, reminiscent of du Maurier – find their echo is Netley's grim history...’ Nicola McAllister, Observer