From the Walter Scott Prize-winning author of The Gallows Pole comes a powerful new novel about an unlikely friendship between a young man and an older woman, set in the former smuggling village of Robin Hood’s Bay in the aftermath of the Second World War
Benjamin Myers was born in Durham in 1976. His novel The Gallows Pole received a Roger Deakin Award and won the Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction. Beastings won the Portico Prize for Literature and Pig Iron won the Gordon Burn Prize, while Richard was a Sunday Times Book of the Year. He has also published poetry, crime novels and short fiction, while his journalism has appeared in publications including, among others, the Guardian, New Statesman, Caught by the River and New Scientist. He lives in the Upper Calder Valley, West Yorkshire. benmyers.com / @BenMyers1
This quiet, lyrical novel confirms a powerful new voice
*THE TIMES*
This is a poetic book with a winning generosity of spirit, moving
from a folksy celebration of the rural north to a revelation of the
broader horizons that can come from reading and some serious
culture
*SUNDAY TIMES*
It’s a poignant story, and Myers’ descriptions of the countryside
are wonderful
*MAIL ON SUNDAY*
One of the most interesting, restless writers of his generation …
Unfurling at the unhurried pace of a fern, it’s an evocatively
lyrical paean to the countryside – deeply felt and closely
observed
*DAILY MAIL*
A draft of cool, clear water, it feels like a cleansing book ...
He’s such a good and brave writer … there’s a lot of heart in this
book ... I was comparing it to some Ted Hughes poetry and it’s so
much more hopeful than that … there’s light in this landscape ... A
very original writer and has pushed the form in all kinds of
ways
*MONOCLE*
Every page is studded with descriptive jewels … Deeply attuned to
the natural world … Poetic … This book is a sensual pleasure … It’s
about the forever things: good food, and art, and friendship, and
how those pleasures can redeem us, even during the harshest of
times
*NEW STATESMAN*
Quietly gripping … Written with Myers’s customary grit and brio … A
welcome advance, one that sees Myers effortlessly extending his
range
*GUARDIAN*
What a radical thing, these days, to have written a book so full of
warmth and kindness. Two complaints: it made me hungry, especially
their first meal. It made me want to swim so badly. It’s
gorgeous
*MAX PORTER*
A keenly observed and heartfelt appreciation of landscape and
place
*HERALD*
Myers’ prose and poetry makes a celebration of the "new Ondaatje" a
far less preposterous mantle than it may seem
*CAUGHT BY THE RIVER*
Glorious ... Leaves an indelible impression ... A moving and subtle
novel in many ways, infused with a love of the minute pleasures in
life, and the lasting regrets
*SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY*
Imbued with all the evocative rhythms of the passing seasons. This
is what folk music would look like if it came in the written
form
*THE CRACK*
Book by book, over the past decade, Ben Myers has proved himself to
be one of the most singular, moving and crucial voices of our
times, making The Offing one of the must-read books of the year
*DAVID PEACE*
It reminds me of a time when David Bowie could serve up something
new with almost every album ... the book portrays an uncanny
feminine touch and though the trip is gentle, there are deep
undercurrents in this heart of a new rural darkness
*CAUGHT BY THE RIVER*
A tender, tragic but warming story of love and living amid the flux
of time, the sea and the seasons, The Offing is both beautiful and
beautifully told. Through its pages, Myers carefully and
thoughtfully reaffirms the values and riches of human connection,
freedom and the joy of living on your own terms
*ROB COWEN, award-winning author of Common Ground*
A gorgeous summer song of a book, quietly and precisely what the
world needs, calling friendship and gentleness from people, place
and language, The Offing is about the best of us. It is to be
treasured and passed on
*HORATIO CLARE*
Intense and evocative
*OBSERVER, Picks for 2019*
Ben Myers once again writes a rich backdrop of the natural world
for this deeply tender, timely and necessary story about the power
of relationships across the boundaries of age, class and gender.
Everyone reading this book of hope will wish that at sixteen they
too had met a Dulcie Piper
*LUKE TURNER*
Beautiful and evocative landscape writing, as you’d expect, but
also a sensitive exploration of love, growing up, friendship and
becoming an artist. Dulcie Piper is one of the best characters I’ve
read in ages and I already miss her
*JENN ASHWORTH*
Myers’ eye for the natural world is as good as ever … A keenly
observed and heartfelt appreciation of landscape and place
*HERALD*
‘Arresting and profoundly moving ... A state-of-the-nation novel,
driven by love and concern ... A lament for the crumbling best of
England. This a novel for our times’
*IRISH TIMES*
A tight, lyrical and almost painfully truthful novel shot through
with melancholy, desire and a fierce longing for the countryside …
It confirms Myers’ place as one of the best writers of nature at
work today
*i*
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