Castaway

'As remarkable for its degree of thoughtfulness, and unflinchingly unsentimental self-exposure, as for its descriptive skills...such dreams as stuff is made of'

'A savagely self-searching tale...she is a born writer as well as a ruthlessly talented survivor'

Lucy Irvine was born in 1956 in Whitton, Middlesex.She ran away from school very early and had no full-time education after the age of thirteen.She has been employed as a charlady, monkey-keeper, waitress, stonemason's mate, life model, pastry-cook and concierge.She has also worked with disabled people and as a clerk at the Inland Revenue.Lucy Irvine is the author of a novel, One is One, as well as Castaway and an account of her early years, Runaway.She has three sons and lives in the Highlands of Scotland.

'Writer seeks "wife" for a year on tropical island.' 
 
The opportunity to escape from it all was irresistible. Lucy Irvine answered the advertisement - and found herself alone on a remote desert island with a 'husband' she hardly knew. 
 
Lucy Irvine fell in love with the seductive, if cruel, beauty of that untouched Eden, whose power to enslave and enchant her never slackened throughout the whole of her amazing adventure. 
 
Uncompromisingly candid and sometimes shocking, Castaway is her compulsively readable account of a desert island dream which threatened to turn into a nightmare of illness, thirst and personal antipathy.

Lucy Irvine

'It is a wise book: full of wisdom about parenthood and dreams we chase, published at a time when the myth of escape is as powerful as ever'

'A more honest account of island life and a better debunker of paradise than Faraway would be hard to find'

'This enthralling book combines two stories - Irvine's adventures, and the even more amazing story of the extraordinary Hepworth family...Irvine's integrity, fine prose, brilliant powers of observation and sheer pluck make [Faraway] my nomination for travel book of the year'

Eighteen years later, in 1999, Lucy took her three children to the farthest corner of the Solomons to live for a year on remote Pigeon Island. This time the invitation had come from an intrepid eighty-year-old, Diana Hepworth, who, in 1947, set sail from England and embarked on a hazardous journey to find a faraway paradise where she and her husband Tom could raise a family. 
 
Faraway is the fascinating tale of two extraordinary worlds - 'primitive' and modern 'colonial' - in which tragedy, heroism, danger and pure joy combine in one remarkable story. This is a classic account by a writer who has dug deep into her psyche to illuminate the darkest reaches of our own.

Lucy Irvine

Praise for Faraway

'A very good story indeed'

'Another astonishing tale'

'It is a wise book: full of wisdom about parenthood and dreams we chase, published at a time when the myth of escape is as powerful as ever'

'A very good story indeed'

'Another astonishing tale'

'It is a wise book: full of wisdom about parenthood and dreams we chase, published at a time when the myth of escape is as powerful as ever'

'A very good story indeed'

'Another astonishing tale'

'It is a wise book: full of wisdom about parenthood and dreams we chase, published at a time when the myth of escape is as powerful as ever'

Books by Lucy Irvine

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