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The Wild Other

On sale

8th March 2018

Price: £9.99

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Selected: Paperback / ISBN-13: 9781473630246

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‘Extraordinary. I’ve never met anyone who has read it and doesn’t rank it as one of their favourite books.’ DOLLY ALDERTON

So fierce and brave and visceral and raw – will stay with me forever. I loved it.’ ELIZABETH GILBERT

‘Full of heart, bravery and adventure. AMY LIPTROT

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE

Clover Stroud grew up in rural Wiltshire surrounded by animals and family. When she was just sixteen her adored mother had a horrific riding accident which left her permanently brain-damaged, and suddenly Clover was left to fend for herself. She embarked on an extraordinary journey to heal her broken heart, courting men and danger through two marriages and five children.

The Wild Other is a grippingly honest account of love, sex and travelling to the darkest edges of human experience and back again. Powerful and deeply emotional, this is the story of an extraordinary life lived at its fullest.

There is so much richly evoked life here… beautifully written.’ Cathy Rentzenbrink, The Times

‘This redemptive memoir will steal your heart; it will return it bruised but emboldened.’ Mail on Sunday

Reviews

Cressida Connolly
Clover Stroud is a born writer: honest, tender, moving and true. A beautiful book.
The Bookseller
Horses, family ties, exotic lovers and beautiful writing all saddle up in this thoroughbred ride through love, loss, danger, motherhood and healing.
Rosie Boycott
A stunning story of courage in the face of fortune's cruelest blows, Clover Stroud's extraordinary memoir charts her journey from child to adult, from daughter to mother, proving that bravery - and love - will triumph even in the darkest situations.
Katie Hickman
Beautifully written and so moving ... a gritty, passionate, searingly honest meditation on grief, love and motherhood.
India Knight
Beautifully written...I love this book.
Polly Samson
Heart-wrenching and beautifully written.
Bryony Gordon
An astonishing piece of work that at times made my heart burst. All of human life is contained in this book. Clover Stroud is a remarkable woman, and an incredible writer.
Gaby Hinsliff
Fearless, frank and so beautifully told, The Wild Other is a defiant story of love and motherhood in the face of loss. One of those books that makes you resolve to wring every last exhilarating drop from life while you can.
Polly Williams
So haunting and brave and beautiful.
Esther Freud
A dazzling, searingly honest book. Love. Sex. Grief. The Wild West. I couldn't put it down.
Elizabeth Day, The Pool
An extraordinary memoir... Stroud writes with moving, eloquent honesty.
Tatler
Compelling and candid, deftly weaving together past and present... a heart-wrenching story told in haunting, lyrical prose.
Woman and Home
An uplifting and achingly honest personal story about loss, trauma and grief.
Red magazine
Shocking and sexy, yet tragic and touching too.
The Spectator
Some events can't be mitigated; they can only be endured with grace and style, something Stroud certainly achieves, to judge from this marvellous book.
Cathy Rentzenbrink, The Times
There is so much richly evoked life here... beautifully written.
Red magazine
A startling and raw memoir, which has drawn comparisons to Cheryl Strayed's Wild... Brave, beautiful writing, which can't help but inspire us to find our own "wild others".
Country Life
Enthralling
Telegraph
Some books have the power to make you reconsider certainties, to reflect, alter and transform previous assumptions about love, sex, freedom, friendship, courage and death. Clover Stroud's memoir, The Wild Other, is such a book
Sunday Express
Stroud writes with considerable power, resonance and brutal honesty. The Wild Other will enthral anyone with wanderlust.
Financial Times
This heartfelt account begins with a young girl lost in the hinterlands of grief, and ends with a woman coming to terms with the wildness within herself.
Sunday Times
A moving account of the tragic consequences of a horse-riding accident on a loving daughter.
Observer
A survivor's tale that is both redemptive and cathartic.
Mail on Sunday
This redemptive memoir will steal your heart; it will return it bruised but emboldened.
Amy Liptrot, author of The Outrun
I have huge admiration for the spirit of this memoir, and its author: full of heart, bravery and adventure. A moving, gripping read.
Evening Standard
I can't recommend Clover Stroud's memoir The Wild Other enough. Stroud is a brilliant writer and has led a fascinating life.
Olivia Laing
I loved this beautiful, passionate, troubled book, which gallops courageously over difficult terrain. At once a wrenching account of a tragedy and a love letter to the solace provided by horses, Stroud's clear-eyed look at how wildness and domesticity have entwined in her life is both heartening and inspiring.
Decca Aitkenhead
Life-affirming, whip-smart, gripping, this book crackles with vitality and joy. From tragedy Clover Stroud has conjured sheer brilliance - what a story, what a woman, what a book.
Dolly Alderton
An astonishing book about loss, love, darkness, pain, sex and adventure. I adore it.
Elizabeth Gilbert author of Eat Pray Love
This story - so fierce and brave and visceral and raw - will stay with me forever. Clover Stroud is a force of nature, and a woman who is fearless in the face of life and death. I loved it.