Quite unlike her fair stepsisters, Lizzie is dark and secretive: 'Just like your father' says her mother. But what was her father like? Photos of him are hidden away; snatches of overheard conversation between her mother and her stepfather deepen the mystery. Only her best friend Savannah - also abandoned by her father when she was a baby - knows what it feels like to wonder, to try and piece together an earlier story. But when events propel Lizzie alone to London she stops wondering and starts searching...Beautifully evoking the ache of childhood loss, the scrappy joys of chaotic families, and the hurt and relief of understanding, OUT OF THE PICTURE reveals Polly Samson's talent for laying bare the uncomfortable truths that lie just under the skin - in every family, in every secret.
Out of the Picture
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'...Samson has earned herself a place on people's shelves next to Rafaella Barker, Esther Freud and Barbara Trapido. ' -- Independent on Sunday
'She pinpoints the telling detail in character or landscape and brings her prose to life with evocative scents and colours' -- DAILY TELEGRAPH
'Talent and a writing style that feels as natural as air' -- THE TIMES
'She pinpoints the telling detail in character or landscape and brings her prose to life with evocative scents and colours' -- DAILY TELEGRAPH
'Talent and a writing style that feels as natural as air' -- THE TIMES
From the Publisher
Excellent reviews for Polly Samson's Out of the Picture...
'Samson reprises the fractured family themes from her first collection, with deeper sympathy and insight. A fine debut novel' - Esquire
'Samson reprises the fractured family themes from her first collection, with deeper sympathy and insight. A fine debut novel' - Esquire
'...she has talent and a writing style that feels as natural as air' - The Times
'(Samson) pinpoints the telling detail in character or landscape and brings her prose to life with evocative scents and colours' - The Daily Telegraph
'Last year I tipped Polly Samson's engaging collection of short stories, 'Lying in Bed' as the debut of the year. Her first novel, Out of the Picture, is a worthy successor.' - Tatler
'A crisp, unsentimentally poignant stare into the heart of abandonment and loneliness' - The Daily Mail --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
Lizzie is being driven mad by a man in a car that's worth more than her flat. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Lizzie is being driven mad by a man in a car that's worth more than her flat. Read the first page
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
I have just spent an extremely enjoyable couple of evenings with this book. It is well written, moving and filled with insight. The mysterious things that make people attracted to one another are accutely observed. Polly Samson writes about the sort of people we all know and I was hooked on this story of one such girl and her relationships with her father, her stepfather and her sugar daddy father figure. I couldn't recommend this book more highly.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This book made me cry at the end which is unexpected in a book that has this much humour. Although some of it was quite comical I kept wondering if I was supposed to be laughing when there was so much misery in the story. I was the same age as the main character in 1980 when the novel is set, and like Lizzie had a difficult time as I approached my twenties at the start of the Thatcher period. I thought the author captured seventies childhood well, ziggy stardust, jacobs cream crackers, alberto apple VO5 etc and also the way that Lizzie is at an age where she is both adult and a child - depending on whose looking. I could have done without some of the jokes though recommended if - like Lizzie - you want to laugh and cry at the same time "like a Rainbow".
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
I only read this because my girlfriend ordered it (she's got a really serious Amazon habit!) and I picked it up off the pile because I liked the cover. For the first few pages, I kept thinking that it probably wasn't the sort of book I was really going to "get" (the main character is an eighteen-year-old girl called Lizzie) but then it was suddenly three o'clock in the morning, my girlfriend was fast asleep, and I was completely hooked on Lizzie - she's the sort of character who makes you want to reach into the book and pull her out so that you can have a laugh with her over dinner and then later maybe let her have a cry on your shoulder. Brilliant! Very real and absorbing characters especially Lizzie and Cordelia. I couldn't have enjoyed it more. My girlfriend (who is reading it as I write this) keeps reading me bits aloud because she says Lizzie is exactly like she was when she was that age, especially all the things like hanging out with the "worst boys" in the pubs and doing armscratches with friends (don't think any boys did them) and all the best-friend stuff. (She hasn't admitted to any shudder-to-remember sex though). I give it five out of five. My girlfriend (from halfway through) gives it four. Grand total = four and a half. Well done Polly Samson - it's great to know you can judge a book by its cover.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Quirky and thought stirring.
Very engaging: 'Out of the Picture' so glad i stumbled on it, but I've always liked brollies and parasols! so the jacket drew me in! Read more
Published 27 days ago by eva le bon
5.0 out of 5 stars
Polly Samson creates works to wallow in!
This is, quite simply, the most wonderful book I have ever read. It's full of the most delicious atmosphere and sense of place and I cannot praise the author's writing style highly... Read more
Published on 22 April 2003
5.0 out of 5 stars
Polly Samson creates works to wallow in!
This is, quite simply, the most wonderful book I have ever read. It's full of the most delicious atmosphere and sense of place and I cannot praise the author's writing style highly... Read more
Published on 22 April 2003
3.0 out of 5 stars
A sweet story to remember
I enjoyed reading this book. I felt that Polly Samson is a talented writer who is able to capture our minds, enabling to keep the truth about what really happens as a suspense... Read more
Published on 22 Jun 2001
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent
I loved this book. Simple as that. I recently read some short stories by her and they were good too. Read more
Published on 3 May 2000
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