Sophie Elmhirst is a prizewinning writer for the Guardian Long Read and The Economist's 1843 magazine, and a contributing editor at the Gentlewoman and Harper's Bazaar. In 2020 she won the British Press Award for Feature Writer of the Year; she has also won a Foreign Press Award and been longlisted for the Orwell Prize. She first came across the story of Maurice and Maralyn Bailey researching a piece on our desire to escape. This is her first book. She lives in London.
Electrifying . . . a tender portrait of two unconventional souls
blithely defying the conventions of their era and making a break
for freedom
*Guardian*
An extraordinary survival story… Elmhirst’s reconstruction of their
ordeal is riveting, told in illuminating detail
*Sunday Times*
A compelling book about a shipwreck, but also as thoughtful a tale
about marriage, for better and worse, as you are likely to read
*Observer*
An amazing tale of survival . . . reminds me how incredibly hard it
is to find love out there in the world
*New Statesman*
A gripping tale of maritime catastrophe but also of marriage
*Sunday Times*
An epic story of adventure and survival
*Daily Express*
Superb… Elmhirst is good at evoking an era that feels both familiar
and like deep history… you really do hang on to her every word
*Spectator*
With its period detail and softly poetic prose, the book melds
together the sweet conjugal bonds of a quirky pair with the
adrenaline kick of Jaws… It is a remarkable portrait of a marriage
kept afloat against the odds
*Financial Times*
Never sentimental and perfectly paced, this is the best sort of
story: a true one
*Economist*
A quirky, thrilling and moving tale of a love which proved stronger
than starvation, dehydration and the mighty Pacific
*i*
Extraordinary . . . Elmhirst is a terrific writer
*ELIZABETH DAY*
Maurice and Maralyn somehow contrives to be both gripping and
elegiac. Sophie Elmhirst's graceful, confident prose is novelistic
in its pleasures and profoundly moving in its impact
*KALIANE BRADLEY, author of The Ministry of Time*
Thought-provoking…compelling…tender… An ideal gift for a friend or
family who likes incredible true stories of survival. But it’s also
a book about love and hubris. And in that sense, it’s a book for us
all.
*PANDORA SYKES*
This dramatic, profound human story is so beautifully told in calm,
thoughtful, perfectly judged prose. I really could not put it
down
*NINA STIBBE, author of Love, Nina*
A beautiful meditation on endurance, codependence, and the power of
love. A dazzling book
*PATRICK RADDEN KEEFE, author of Empire of Pain*
A beautiful, brilliant book, an exquisitely written piece of
non-fiction that reads like a great novel
An exciting, fast-paced, terrifying adventure story, and at the
same time a slow, gentle commentary on love
*ALEXANDER MASTERS, author of Stuart: a Life Backwards*
A beautiful, searing book -- a miniature epic of seafaring and
survival with an unbreakable, unusual love story at its heart
*SAM KNIGHT, author of The Premonitions Bureau*
What an astonishing story. And what a sublime piece of writing
*JULIET NICOLSON, author of A House Full of Daughters*
An extraordinary account
*Guardian, *Books to Look Out For 2024**
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