Gavin Pretor-Pinney

Gavin Edmund Pretor-Pinney is a British author,[1] known for his books The Cloudspotter's Guide and The Wavewatcher's Companion.

Early life and education

Pretor-Pinney is son of Anthony Robert Edmund Pretor-Pinney and Laura Uppercu, daughter of George Winthrop Haight, of Manhattan, observer for the American Bar Association and a specialist in international law.[2] The Pretor-Pinney family were landowners at Somerton, Somerset since the 1800s, descendants of the sugar merchant and Mayor of Bristol Charles Pinney; Anthony Pretor-Pinney had Somerton Erleigh, named for the family's former house on a different part of the estate, built in 1972–3.[3][4]

Pretor-Pinney attended Westminster School, the University of Oxford, and Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design.

Career

In 1991, Tom Hodgkinson came up with the idea for a magazine called The Idler, immediately recruiting his friend and neighbour, Pretor-Pinney, to help him develop the concept; they co-founded the magazine, publishing its first issue in 1993.[5]

In 2004, Pretor-Pinney was asked to speak at a conference, where he gave a talk titled "Inaugural Lecture of the Cloud Appreciation Society"; so many people showed joy and interest in the concept that, in 2005, he founded the Cloud Appreciation Society.[6]

Awards and honours

Works

Television appearances

  • Presented on BBC TV: Cloudspotting[10]
  • Appeared on BBC TV: The Secret Life of Waves[11]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Walsh, Patrick (19 November 2012). "Author: Gavin Pretor-Pinney" (Press release). Conville & Walsh. Archived from the original on 24 February 2012. Retrieved 31 March 2026. winner of the Royal Society Winton Prize for Best Science Book 2011
  2. ↑ "George W. Haight". The New York Times. 14 August 1983.
  3. ↑ "Somerton Erleigh, Somerton - 1406542 | Historic England".
  4. ↑ A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland, seventh edition, vol. II, Sir Bernard Burke, Harrison and Sons, 1886, p. 1467
  5. ↑ "About The Idler". The Idler. 25 September 2014. Archived from the original on 25 September 2014. Retrieved 31 March 2026.
  6. ↑ Naik, Gautam (16 July 2013). "TED Speaker: Gavin Pretor-Pinney". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 20 March 2014. Retrieved 31 March 2026 – via TED.
  7. ↑ "Expert in idleness is surprise winner of science book prize", The Independent, 18 November 2011
  8. ↑ "The Wavewatcher's Companion". Archived from the original on 10 September 2016. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
  9. ↑ "Daily Telegraph review". The Daily Telegraph. London. 13 June 2010.
  10. ↑ "Cloudspotting". BBC.
  11. ↑ "The Secret Life of Waves". BBC.


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