Philip Hoare: Why Have I Bothered?

A couple of years ago Philip Hoare, now 55, found himself digging around in a sideboard in the semi-detached Southampton house in which he grew up. He was surprised to find a blue notebook that had belonged to his father, who worked as a cableman all his life, but had been commandeered by the teenaged Philip. "Alongside the blank verse and stream of consciousness lyrics were doodles: pictures of whales, 70s glam-rock stars, 1920s decadent figures – all of my obsessions. The whale I'd painted in poster paint using my mother's clear nail varnish to make it look slicker and shiny as if it had just come out of the water. It's really remarkable – the whole of my career planned out at the age of 14. I thought: why have I bothered?"

The Guardian.

"He writes about birds like a gay man might write about his best trick" - John Waters.

Now read on...