The outrun, by amy liptrot

Review written by Rachel Goddard, book-club member

For a long time I resisted reading The Outrun. I’d heard all the wonderful reviews and knew it included both Scotland and swimming – two of my favourite things.

connections and reconnections

However, I also knew it was a ‘memoir’ about recovery, of trauma and addiction. And even at that point two, three years ago, I couldn’t handle reading books like that. I was basically reading gentle ‘women’s contemporary fiction or nature writing (at the moment, even some fiction is too much for my over stressed monkey brain). Reading anything that involved drama or negativity just unsettled me, but also I just want positive and uplifting escapes.

It kept coming up on my radar though and to be honest, the cover design did draw me in as the sea always does.

So, while on a road trip swimming our way across France one summer, I finally started reading. And pretty quickly it drew me in. I even remember one evening, despite being in a lovely campsite above a stunning lake, I got into my sleeping bag early to continue reading it. I think my own holiday being surrounded by nature was reflected by what I was reading. I realised it was it was about so much more than recovering from addiction. It was about finding nature, or rather re-finding it, and how it helped her. Something that I recognise in my own life, especially at the moment.

So coming back to read it a second time for the first Women in Nature book club with Rowan Tree was a joy. Especially given I was reading it just as we started social distancing due to Covid-19 and so a planned trip to Scotland had been cancelled. I could travel though through Amy’s words.

the landscape

What I’d forgotten from my first reading, was how the landscape, the nature, the very essence of Orkney was woven through the book so naturally, even before Amy fully realised the positive effect it had on her recovery. During the passages of her life in London her thoughts and dreams about Orkney, involving the landscape, the sounds and textures her subconscious sought, brought a really personal insight into how she was feeling. There was also a huge juxtaposition between the built landscape of London and how it affected her, compared to the wilderness of Orkney. We talked about this aspect a lot during the book group so it obviously resonated with others, especially those of us who had lived in London.

What also resonated with me was how Amy came back to the nature and wildness of her childhood. For her, she had escaped island life for the long yearned for lights of London but returned. I was brought up in London, but one of the greenest parts where I still managed to spend much of my childhood up trees and playing in streams. My holidays were also always spent in rural areas so my love of nature began there. However, like Amy, it is only more recently that nature, rather than just outdoor sports, has become such a major part of my life and my wellbeing. The scenes where she describes going back to spots on the farm where she sat as a teenager, reminded me of the spots on the downs or by the sea that I now sit if I need to escape. It showed her that she didn’t need alcohol and partying but to connect with nature, to be in it.

The other aspect that we discussed at the book group and that struck me when reading the passages about her time on Papa Westray, or going sea swimming, was about community. We discussed how connecting with nature, was also about connecting with place and with that community. We talked about the landscapes and communities that meant something to us, just as Amy realised what Orkney means to her. While she became more and more disconnected in London, she mixed with a wide community in Orkney and engaged with them in a totally different way. I’ve lived in Brighton for over twenty years, yet it’s only been in more recent years that I’ve felt I’ve really connected with the wider community. It’s only through the recent social distancing guidance that I’ve really explored the green areas close to my house, usually choosing to travel to areas further away.

wild swimming

At the time I first read The Outrun, I had become a ‘wild swimmer’ indeed we were on a holiday that was mostly guided by wild swimming books. But I hadn’t yet found my own wild swimming group. Reading about her joining the Orkney Polar Bears made me want my own swim tribe even more. I wanted not only the sensation, joy and healing that the water brought, but the sense of community the group brought. Now I have found my tribe – the Seabirds, swimming has become so much a part of my life and self care. I am part of a salty community that not only exists on the beach, but in our wider lives. And those swim communities enable you to connect with watery landscapes wherever you go. Now, if I go away, I know there is probably a swim group or local swimmer I can meet up with and get a much better experience both in terms of the best swim spots and meeting new friends. For me, swimming takes me into the landscape, into nature much more than in my normal daily life.

book club discussion

Discussing the book with others, also showed me that I’m not alone in viewing nature, landscapes and community like this. We talked about our favourite places to live and it was always due to the people and the landscape. We may have identified with different parts of Amy’s landscapes, but we all wanted to go there and at the moment, I’d certainly like to live there! The book group discussion both reinforced ideas I had, and drew out aspects I hadn’t thought about. We created our own short-term community based on Amy’s landscapes.

So yes, while there are some difficult and hard scenes, especially as she describes her lowest points and it may force to confront some of your own behaviour, this book, I feel is about a journey to realising the power nature has to heal. How destructive and alien urban lives can be and that even if we weren’t brought up in the wilds of a far away island on a farm, we can still bring nature and our surroundings into our lives, even if that is a local park or garden.

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