To the River

Olivia Laing is a writer and critic with a particular interest in art, sexuality and cities. She writes and reviews widely, for the Observer, the New Statesman, the TLS and the Guardian among other publications, and was the Observer's Deputy Books Editor between 2007 and 2009. She has a first class BSc (Hons) in herbal medicine, and practised as a medical herbalist for several years before becoming a journalist, specialising in the treatment of anxiety and depression. Olivia is the author of two other books, both published by Canongate: The Lonely City, in 2016, and The Trip to Echo Spring, in 2013. She was awarded a MacDowell Fellowship and grants from both the Arts Council and Author's Foundation to work on The Trip to Echo Spring.