Spike Island by Philip Hoare
Stretching for a quarter-of-a-mile along the banks of Southampton Water, the Royal Victoria Military Hospital at Netley was an expression of Victorian imperialism in a million red bricks, a sprawling behemoth so vast that when the Americans took it over in the Second World War, GIs drove their jeeps down its corridors. Born out of the bloody mess of the Crimean War, rising literally out of its own foundations - its bricks made from clay excavated on the site - Netley's hospital would serve a century's worth of conflict before it met its own demise just one hundred years later. In this work, Philip Hoare has written a biography of a building. In the process he deals with his own past, and his own relationship to its history.
Philip Hoare was born and brought up in Southampton, next to Netley's military hospital. After a punk-inspired spell in indie music, running his own label and managing bands, he turned to writing. He is the author of Serious Pleasures - The Life of Stephen Tennant, Noel Coward and Wilde's Last Stand.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781841152936 |
| ISBN 10 | 1841152935 |
| Title | Spike Island |
| Author | Philip Hoare |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | HarperCollins Publishers |
| Year published | 2001-04-02 |
| Number of pages | 432 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |