Gavin Pretor-Pinney

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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. 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.