Gavin Edmund Pretor-Pinney is a British author, 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 The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary association, voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students in the United States; national in scope, it is not specific to any single jurisdiction. Founded in 1878, the ABA's stated acti ...

and a specialist in international law. The Pretor-Pinney family were landowners at

Somerton, Somerset Somerton ( ) is a town and civil parish in the English county of Somerset. It gave its name to the county and was briefly, around the start of the 14th century, the county town, and around 900 was possibly the capital of Wessex. It has held a w ...

since the 1800s, descendants of the sugar merchant and Mayor of Bristol

Charles Pinney Charles Pinney (29 April 179317 July 1867) was a British merchant and local politician in Bristol, England. He was a partner in a family business that ran sugar plantations in the West Indies and owned a number of slaves. Pinney was selected as m ...

; Anthony Pretor-Pinney had Somerton Erleigh, named for the family's former house on a different part of the estate, built in 1972–3. Pretor-Pinney attended

Westminster School Westminster School is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Westminster, London, England, in the precincts of Westminster Abbey. It descends from a charity school founded by Westminster Benedictines before the Norman Conquest, as do ...

, the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, and

Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design Central Saint Martins is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London, a public art university in London, England. The college offers full-time courses at foundation, undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and a variety of short ...

Career

He co-founded the magazine '' The Idler'' and founded the

Cloud Appreciation Society The Cloud Appreciation Society is a society founded by Gavin Pretor-Pinney from the United Kingdom in January 2005. The society aims to foster understanding and appreciation of clouds, and has over 60,000 members from 120 countries, . Yahoo ...

in 2004. He grew up in West London and now also lives in

Somerton Somerton may refer to: Places Australia * Somerton, New South Wales * Somerton Park, South Australia, a seaside Adelaide suburb ** Somerton Man, unsolved case of an unidentified man found dead in 1948 on the Somerton Park beach *Somerton, Victoria ...

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

Awards and honours

*2011

Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family or royalty Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, ...

, winner, ''The Wavewatcher's Companion''

Works

*''The Cloudspotter's Guide'' (2006) *''The Cloud Collector's Handbook'' (2006) *''A Pig with Six Legs and Other Clouds'' (2007) *'' The Wavewatcher's Companion'' (2010) *''The Ukulele Handbook'' (September 2013; co-written with

Tom Hodgkinson Tom Hodgkinson (born 1968) is a British writer and the editor of '' The Idler'' magazine, which he established in 1993 with his friend Gavin Pretor-Pinney. His philosophy, in his published books and articles, is of a relaxed approach to life, ...

) *''A Cloud A Day'' (2019)

Television appearances

*Presented on BBC TV: Cloudspotting *Appeared on BBC TV: The Secret Life of Waves

References

External links

Cloud Appreciation Society''The Idler'' magazine
Year of birth missing (living people) Living people People educated at Westminster School, London British magazine founders British writers {{UK-writer-stub