Author Guide · Memoir & Nature Writing
Books Written by
Amy Liptrot grew up on a sheep farm on the west coast of mainland Orkney, left for university in Edinburgh and spent about ten years in London, where her drinking took her job, her home and her relationship. Nearing thirty, after a community detox, she went back to the islands: she counted corncrakes at night for the RSPB, swam in the sea in winter and spent months alone on Papa Westray. The book she wrote about it, The Outrun, began as a column for the website Caught by the River, won the Wainwright Prize in 2016 and in 2024 became a film starring Saoirse Ronan. This guide covers her two key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 2 key books · 2016–2022 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Amy Liptrot has published two books: The Outrun (2016), her memoir of getting sober on Orkney, and The Instant (2022), about a year in Berlin. A third, The Tangles, is announced for February 2027. Start with The Outrun; it won the Wainwright Prize and the PEN Ackerley Prize, and The Instant picks up where it ends.
Where to Start with Amy Liptrot
If you want her defining book
→ The Outrun (2016) — the Orkney memoir that won the Wainwright Prize.
If you want a book about recovery from addiction
→ The Outrun (2016) — sobriety told through weather, birds and sea swimming.
If you want nature writing set in a city
→ The Instant (2022) — raccoons and goshawks in Berlin.
If you have seen the 2024 film
→ The Outrun (2016) — the book behind Saoirse Ronan’s Rona.
2 Amy Liptrot Books, in Order
The Outrun
The outrun is a field on her father’s farm in Orkney; her father has manic depression and her mother became an evangelical Christian. The book moves between her years of drinking in London and her return to the islands at about thirty, where she helps with lambing, surveys corncrakes for the RSPB and spends a winter on Papa Westray. Published by Canongate in January 2016 and read on BBC Radio 4 as Book of the Week, it won the Wainwright Prize (2016) and the PEN Ackerley Prize (2017), and was shortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize and the Ondaatje Prize.
The Instant
A year in Berlin after the events of The Outrun, arranged by the thirteen moons of that year. Sober and in her thirties, Liptrot works low-paid jobs, uses dating apps, falls for someone called “B” and goes looking for the city’s wildlife, from raccoons to goshawks. Published by Canongate in March 2022, it was a Sunday Times bestseller and shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize.
In What Order to Read Amy Liptrot
Read them in publication order. The Instant is a sequel in all but name: it opens with Liptrot leaving Orkney a few years into sobriety and assumes you know what she left behind. Read on its own it still works, but the drinking years and the islands are what give the Berlin chapters their stakes.
If you have seen the film first, the book is worth reading anyway. The film changes her name to Rona and compresses the timeline; the book has the corncrakes, the maps of Papa Westray and the long passages on tides and weather that a film cannot hold.
A reading path
1. The Outrun (2016)
2. The Outrun, the film (2024)
3. The Instant (2022)
4. The Tangles (due 2027)
Everything Else Amy Liptrot Published
Beyond the 2 key books: 2 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Anthologies and forthcoming
2
2 books · 2020–2027
- 2020Antlers of Wateran anthology of Scottish nature writing edited by Kathleen Jamie; Liptrot contributes an essay on wild swimming
- 2027The Tanglesforthcoming from Canongate, announced for 11 February 2027; a book about seaweed
The years · 1981–2027
Quick facts about Amy Liptrot
- Known for
- Writing about recovery from alcoholism through the landscape, wildlife and weather of Orkney, where she grew up
- 1981
- Born in Orkney (c. 1981)
- 2016
- The Outrun wins the Wainwright Prize
- 2027
- The Tangles due from Canongate
- Born
- Orkney, Scotland; grew up on a sheep farm on the west coast of mainland Orkney
- Education
- University of Edinburgh
- Lives
- Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire (as of 2024)
- Journalism
- Columns and reviews for The Guardian and The Orcadian; presented the BBC Radio 4 series The New Anatomy of Melancholy
- Prizes
- Wainwright Prize (2016) and PEN Ackerley Prize (2017), both for The Outrun
- Film
- Co-wrote the screenplay of The Outrun (2024) with the director Nora Fingscheidt
The red mark is 2016: The Outrun, her Orkney memoir, which won the Wainwright Prize that year.
How Amy Liptrot Writes: Recovery in the Present Tense
Liptrot writes in short sections, many of which began as columns for Caught by the River. A chapter in The Outrun can move from a night in a London flat to a corncrake call on Orkney in a page, so the drinking years and the recovery sit side by side instead of in sequence. The effect is closer to a logbook than to a confession.
Her subject is addiction, but her material is the physical world: tides, wind speeds, the names of birds, the lunar calendar, the maps she draws of Papa Westray. Sea swimming and astronomy stand in for the highs she gave up in the recovery she describes. In The Instant she turns that attention on phone screens, dating apps and a moon-tracking app, as well as on the raccoons and goshawks of Berlin.
She does not soften her family or herself. Her father’s manic depression, her mother’s religion and her own behaviour while drunk are told plainly, without a neat arc. The Instant is more experimental still, with a lover, “B”, whose gender shifts through the book, and an epilogue that only hints at a new partner and a child.
Frequently asked questions about Amy Liptrot’s books
How many books has Amy Liptrot written?
Two: The Outrun (2016) and The Instant (2022). She also contributed an essay on wild swimming to the anthology Antlers of Water (2020), and a third book, The Tangles, is announced by Canongate for February 2027.
What are Amy Liptrot’s books in order?
The Outrun (2016), then The Instant (2022). The Tangles is due in 2027.
Where should I start with Amy Liptrot?
The Outrun. It is her best-known book, it won the Wainwright Prize and the PEN Ackerley Prize, and The Instant follows on from where it ends.
What is Amy Liptrot’s most famous book?
The Outrun (2016), her memoir of leaving London and getting sober on Orkney. It was a Sunday Times bestseller and was adapted as a film in 2024 and as a stage play the same year.
Is The Outrun a true story?
Yes. It is a memoir of Liptrot’s own drinking in London, her detox and her return to Orkney. In the 2024 film the character is renamed Rona, and Liptrot co-wrote the screenplay with the director Nora Fingscheidt.
Who stars in The Outrun film?
Saoirse Ronan plays Rona and produced the film; the cast also includes Saskia Reeves, Stephen Dillane and Paapa Essiedu. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on 19 January 2024, opened in UK cinemas on 27 September 2024, and was nominated for two BAFTAs: Best Actress and Outstanding British Film.
Is The Instant a sequel to The Outrun?
Effectively, yes. It follows Liptrot after she leaves Orkney for Berlin, a few years into sobriety, and covers one year of her life there, arranged by the thirteen moons of that year.
What prizes has Amy Liptrot won?
The Outrun won the Wainwright Prize in 2016 and the PEN Ackerley Prize in 2017, and was shortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize and the Ondaatje Prize. The Instant was shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize.
Was The Outrun adapted for the stage?
Yes. Stef Smith’s stage adaptation, directed by Vicky Featherstone and starring Isis Hainsworth, premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival in July 2024.
Does Amy Liptrot have a new book?
Yes. Canongate has announced The Tangles, her third book, a book about seaweed, for 11 February 2027.
Footnotes
- Amy Liptrot — Wikipedia
- The Outrun — Wikipedia
- The Outrun (film) — Wikipedia
- Amy Liptrot — Canongate
- Book review: The Instant — The Scotsman, 2022
- The Outrun by Amy Liptrot — Shiny New Books
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“Growing up in the wind leaves you strong, sloped and adept at seeking shelter.”
— Amy Liptrot, The Outrun (2016)
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