Amy Liptrot has published her work with various magazines, journals
and blogs and she has written a regular column for Caught by the
River out of which The Outrun has emerged. As well as writing for
major newspapers including the Guardian and the Observer, Amy has
worked as an artist's model, a trampolinist and in a shellfish
factory. The Outrun was awarded the 2016 Wainwright Prize and was
shortlisted for the 2016 Wellcome Prize.
@amy_may
A lyrical, brave memoir. It's Liptrot's aptitude for marrying her
inner-space with wild outer-spaces that makes her such a compelling
writer . . . I enjoyed this book enormously
* * Guardian * *
An exhilarating memoir . . . Anyone who has ever been unhappy or
unwise will find much that resonates in this powerful, beautiful
writing
* * Stylist * *
Brilliant . . . one of the most scabrously honest, sassy and moving
books about addiction and recovery that I have read
* * Scotsman * *
The Outrun will no doubt sit alongside Richard Mabey's Nature Cure
and Helen Macdonald's H Is for Hawk - the sheer sensuality of
Liptrot's prose and her steely resolve immediately put her right up
there with the best of the best. Liptrot is an Orcadian warrior
with the breeze in her blood and poetry in her fingers, and The
Outrun may even be a future classic. Wherever she journeys next,
you will want to go with her
* * New Statesman * *
Amy Liptrot has lived her life on the edge of things, both
literally and metaphorically. Her beautiful first book gives a
wonderfully evocative account of both, blending searing memoir with
sublime nature writing, and coming up with a unique piece of prose
that amounts to a stirring personal philosophy of how to live. Her
descriptive writing of the [Orkney] islands and their wildlife
absolutely sizzles, a scintillating mix of clear-eyed insight and
poetic heart. She ties in elements of myth and fantasy, some of the
islands' remarkable history, and her own visceral experience to
create something as compelling as any thriller. Amy Liptrot is the
real deal, a writer whose voice seems fully formed on the page, and
I can't wait to read what she writes next
* * Independent on Sunday * *
There is a great deal of frank, flinch-making writing in this book,
but it is always balanced by a sublimity and graciousness that is
rare. This is a bold-hearted and brave-minded book. It is both
terribly sad and awfully affecting. I look forward to its presence
on some prize lists
* * Scotland on Sunday * *
An uncompromising account of addiction and recovery played out
against the blasted fields of Orkney. Liptrot's writing is strong
and sure. The Outrun is a bright addition to the exploding genre of
writing about place and our place in the natural world
* * Observer * *
Clean, clear and impressive . . . a sensuous book, full of summer
nights and winter water. Liptrot swims, walks, lives alone on
uninhabited islands and observes. And from that comes a portrait of
the natural world she is absorbed into
* * Herald * *
The Outrun is a trenchant, modernist siren song to belonging, where
Herculean effort and close observation can root you as strongly as
bloodlines
* * Caught by the River * *
Clear-eyed and brave
* * Psychologies * *
Stunning . . . there is much to enjoy in this brave and
uncompromising account
* * Express * *
A meditative memoir that's a perfect antidote for Christmas
excess
* * Red * *
An astonishingly beautiful book. Amy makes most nature writing seem
flat and pedestrian. Her account of her addiction and recovery is
electric, sexy, immediate and raw, leaving the reader reeling in
her wake . . . This is a luminous, life-affirming book, and I have
no doubt that I'll be pressing it into people's hands for years to
come
*OLIVIA LAING*
Beautiful, stark and unflinching. Amy Liptrot is an extraordinary
new voice
*JENNI FAGAN*
A painfully honest look in a broken mirror, this memoir is
intensely unsettling but also deeply peaceful
*DAMIAN BARR*
This book sang to me. I loved it. It is beautiful, badass,
meticulous and moving. Never evangelical or mawkish, it is by turns
heart-breaking and edifying. A tale of adventure and personal
evolution, it is the story of a woman finding her own painful
edges, and then finding the grit, and guts, and vision to bring
herself back - to the edges of a Scottish island - to recover, and
to process her experiences through words. It's a book you will
read, and re-read, and re-read
*EMMA-JANE UNSWORTH*
An astoundingly honest, uplifting tale of recovery from addiction.
Bold and unflinching, with the journey north the reader is taken by
the hand through an excoriating process of healing, linked as it is
to a return to this wind-scoured Northland. The gentle increase in
attention to wild nature in all its aspects of death and renewal
illuminates and purges the soul. This is a book with a core of fire
and ice that manages to be both rough and tender with the self and
finally says: change your life
*MIRIAM DARLINGTON*
An unmissable read
* * The Skinny * *
Humane and compelling . . . A stark and moving memoir of
addiction
* * Irish Times * *
Insightful and wonderfully evocative . . . an outstanding debut
* * The List * *
Remarkable . . . a meditative interior journey which Liptrot
elevates to an art
* * Spectator * *
A truly brave piece of work, honest and illuminating
*MALACHY TALLACK*
A spare memoir of an exiled Orcadian's return after a broken life
of addiction in London. This is not the increasingly modish parable
of healing through nature. Liptrot's path to a salvation of sorts
is often as bleak, tough and exhilarating as the Orkneys
themselves
*STUART MACONIE*
Courageous and clear-sighted
* * The Lady - Book of the Week * *
Mixing scintillating nature writing with explosive memoir and brave
honesty, The Outrun is a book about making peace with life on the
edge of the world
* * Big Issue * *
A brave and self-assured memoir . . . An exciting contribution to a
new form of nature writing
* * Times Literary Supplement * *
Excellent
* * Sunday Times * *
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