Olivia Laing is a widely acclaimed writer and critic. Her work appears in numerous publications, including the
Guardian,
Observer,
New Statesman,
Frieze and
New York Times. She's a Yaddo and MacDowell Fellow and was 2014 Eccles Writer in Residence at the British Library. Her first book,
To the River, was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize and the Dolman Travel Book of the Year.
The Trip to Echo Spring was shortlisted for the 2013 Costa Biography Award and the 2014 Gordon Burn Prize. Her third book,
The Lonely City, was shortlisted for the 2016 Gordon Burn Prize. She lives in Cambridge.
Why were so many authors of the greatest works of literature consumed by alcoholism? In The Trip to Echo Spring, Olivia Laing takes a journey across America, examining the links between creativity and drink in the overlapping work and lives of six extraordinary men: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, John Berryman, John Cheever and Raymond Carver.
From Hemingway's Key West to Williams's New Orleans, Laing pieces together a topographical map of alcoholism, and strips away the tangle of mythology to reveal the terrible price creativity can exert.
A captivating exploration of alcoholism and literature by the author of The Lonely City; 'beguiling, beautifully written . . . brilliant and original' - Sunday TimesOne of the best books I've read about the creative uses of adversity: frightening but perversely inspiringA work of art, with a voice and a mood all its own.Original, brave and very moving . . . Her insights shine with beauty yet are shaded by sympathy and compassionA terrific writerFull of insight, compassion and unexpected beautyHaunting . . . a moving, troubling, gorgeously written bookBeguiling, beautifully written . . . brilliant and originalBeguiling and incisiveLaing's prose is lucid and exuberantLaing is a brilliant wordsmith and this is a beautifully accomplished book
