William Blake & The Sea Monsters of Love: How one visionary inspired two hundred years of art, poetry & protest

Weaving between the historical, personal and cultural, award-winning author Philip Hoare unspools a web of creative minds and artistic icons who are connected to the genius of William Blake.

In 1973, Derek Jarman set off from London to film the stones of Avebury, Dorset. He was following in the footsteps of his hero, Paul Nash, who had photographed Dorset’s ancient megaliths a generation before. Both artists had an overarching guiding star for whom the mysterious site was a utopian dream of a better world – a visionary who had died long ago yet remained electrically alive to them.

In this alluring and strange poetic odyssey, Philip Hoare traces the vast and enduring legacy of William Blake. Reaching out of the past and far into the future, Blake’s work draws together the natural world and the metaphysical realms, launching his uproarious spirit into the lives of countless artists, filmmakers, poets, writers, musicians, eccentrics and rebels. That same spirit of protest and radicalism continues to inspire us today, with his promise of absolute freedom and the possibility of positive change.