The Whale, is an award winning non-fiction book that delves into literature, history, science, anecdote, anthropology and art to explore our long and often difficult relationship with whales. Inspired by Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, author Philip Hoare manages to dive between poetic lyrical writing and the harshest of scientific facts. Yet within these pages is so much information, from the size of sperm whale’s brain (bigger than ours) to the size of a right whale’s balls (far, far bigger than ours) to the myriad ways we have used the flesh, bone and blubber. At its heart, though, this is a prayer for the whales’ survival.