Gavin Pretor-Pinney

Gavin Pretor-Pinney is a designer and writer. He founded the Cloud Appreciation Society; is author of the bestseller The Cloudspotter’s Guide; co-founder of The Idler magazine; and author of the Wavewatchers Companion (out later this year). If you’ve ever wondered why your heart beats, snakes slither, suspension bridges collapse, butterfly wings shimmer, saucers fly and traffic jams, then gather round and listen to Gavin talking about waves at Port Eliot this year.

Founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society, which now boasts over 4,000 worldwide members and was ‘launched’ at the 2004 Port Eliot festival, Pretor-Pinney’s book The Cloudspotter’s Guide, was turned down by 28 publishers before finding a home with Sceptre. Now a bestseller, its reviews underline both the relevance of the subject matter and the lost opportunity of several publishing houses.

Gavin started wondering about waves when he found himself in a glider ‘surfing’ a gigantic Australian cloud called the Morning Glory; its similarity to an ocean wave was startling. So he embarked on a global journey of wave discovery that was at first intended as an excuse for a holiday to Hawaii. But other kinds of wave kept cropping up to impede his departure. Brain waves, radio waves, infrared waves, microwaves, shock waves, light waves, Mexican waves - all played a role in delaying Gavin’s arrival on Waikiki Beach. This new book is as characteristically hilarious and informative ride as we’d expect from this brilliant writer – don’t miss the opportunity to hear his unique take on the phenomenon of waves.

www.cloudappreciationsociety.org

“Designed by the author in the same old-school style he brought to the Idler, it is also elegantly written…a neat mixture of explanatory oomph and comic crispness…”
The Guardian

“Go cloudspotting: it’s the new religion.”
Sunday Times

Links: