The Hunting of the Shark: The Story Behind the Tale That Crash Landed on an Unsuspecting Oxford Suburban Street - Softcover

Bill Heine

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0956740529 ISBN 13: 9780956740526

Publisher: OxfordFolio, 2011

Synopsis

It's 1986 and American jets take off near Oxford to bomb Tripoli and take out Gaddafi . . . meanwhile another missile has crashed through the shattered tiles of a quiet Oxford suburban home. This is a true story. Dive into this book which celebrates the 25th anniversary of one of England s quirkiest icons. The Hunting of the Shark spills the guts for the very first time on how this bizarre 25-foot fibreglass sculpture was conceived, constructed, erected and kept up on the roof against the full blast of Oxford City bureaucracy. Told by Bill Heine who commissioned its birth, plus exclusive sketches and artwork from the sculptor s own notebook and never-before-seen photographs of the erection in fragrante, The Hunting of the Shark reveals and re-lives a fascinating slice of English eccentricity. Part-Picaresque, part-Pythonesque, this tale of art, anarchy , and architecture reveals how a 7-day wonder became one of the country s most controversial landmarks with a 6-year planning battle, courtroom drama, arrests, a Public Inquiry, and the intervention by the Secretary of State for the Environment. With cameo appearances from Michael Heseltine, Lynda Lee-Potter, Lord Palumbo, Philip Pullman, Mohamed Al Fayed, Bernard Levin, Sir Hugh Casson and others, this is a must read for those who enjoy a jaw-dropping tale in which truth is stranger than fiction.

About this title

Review

It is beautiful, it is surprising, it is funny, it is poetic; it cheers me up whenever I go past it. It is quite obviously a work of art, and one which is unique to Oxford ... we are not so well off for contemporary art that we can afford to destroy this wonderful fish. --Philip Pullman

'A perfect piece of the unexpected in a city so used to order.' --Alastair Cook, England's opening batsman, 2011

'If it does nothing else, the Shark promotes intelligent thought and stimulates discussion about planning, about art, about tourism, about fish, about building structures, and, above all, about the ordinariness of much of our environment.' --Chris Mullineux, Independent Planner

About the Author

Bill Heine is a radio presenter on BBC Radio Oxford and well known in the city. Bill went into student politics in the 1960s at Georgetown University and one of his fellow politicos kept telling everyone how he planned on becoming president of the United States. that was Bill Clinton. Bill worked in the United States senate and the Executive Office of the White House before coming to Oxford and reading law at Balliol a degree that has helped Bill defend himself ever since.

About this edition

• Publisher: OxfordFolio
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0956740529
• ISBN 13: 9780956740526
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 144
• Editor: James Harrison
• Illustrator: John Buckley, Mat Williams