Strangeland
On sale
5th October 2006
Price: £12.99
The intimate memoirs of one of the most acclaimed and controversial artists of her generation.
Here I am, a fucked, crazy, anorexic-alcoholic-childless, beautiful woman. I never dreamt it would be like this.
‘Frequently affecting…intriguing, almost incantatory’ Telegraph
Tracey Emin’s Strangeland is her own space, lying between the Margate of her childhood, the Turkey of her forefathers and her own, private-public life in present-day London. Her writings, a combination of memoirs and confessions, are deeply intimate, yet powerfully engaging. Tracey retains a profoundly romantic world view, paired with an uncompromising honesty. Her capacity both to create controversies and to strike chords is unequalled in British life.
A remarkable book – and an original, beautiful mind.
‘As spare and poignant as one of Emin’s line drawings’ Marie Claire
Here I am, a fucked, crazy, anorexic-alcoholic-childless, beautiful woman. I never dreamt it would be like this.
‘Frequently affecting…intriguing, almost incantatory’ Telegraph
Tracey Emin’s Strangeland is her own space, lying between the Margate of her childhood, the Turkey of her forefathers and her own, private-public life in present-day London. Her writings, a combination of memoirs and confessions, are deeply intimate, yet powerfully engaging. Tracey retains a profoundly romantic world view, paired with an uncompromising honesty. Her capacity both to create controversies and to strike chords is unequalled in British life.
A remarkable book – and an original, beautiful mind.
‘As spare and poignant as one of Emin’s line drawings’ Marie Claire
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Reviews
'A fantastically engaging storyteller... heartbreaking... effortlessly funny'
'As spare and poignant as one of Emin's line drawings'
'A very readable book, and a surprising one too'
'Eccentrically readable'
'Frequently affecting...intriguing, almost incantatory'
'An extremely well-written and readable book'
'Reveals a funny, sensitive and brave woman'
'Emin talks with brutal frankness...genuinely uplifting'
'A natural oddball - or, to put it another way, instinctively eccentric'
'Strangeland should not...be approached as a memoir unless a memoir can be understood to be a Tracey Emin artwork. She is no fake'
'[Emin's] writings are painfully honest...Strangeland is more than Tracey's diary, just as her bed and her tent and her blankets are more than private displays that happen to have attracted a lot of attention'
'While her best-known art has shown Emin as her most confrontational, in her writing we meet a calmer, more sensitive soul.'
'Strangeland is a surprisingly lyrical and tightly written account of its author's journey so far.'
'Emin writes with fierce clarity.'
A fantastically engaging storyteller . . . heartbreaking . . . effortlessly funny
As spare and poignant as one of Emin's line drawings
Eccentrically readable
Frequently affecting . . . read Emin for intriguing, almost incantatory sections on her travels to Turkey, the occasional shaft of two-fingers-up-at-the-world wit and the delight of seeing someone revel in vicious vengefulness
Reveals a funny, sensitive and brave woman, challenging conventions
Emin talks with brutal frankness . . . genuinely uplifting
Her writings are painfully honest . . . Strangeland is more than Tracey's diary, just as her bed and her tent and her blankets are more than private displays that happen to have attracted a lot of attention
While her best-known art has shown Emin at her most confrontational, in her writing we meet a calmer, more sensitive soul.
An extraordinary piece of writing . . . Brace yourself. Let's say this is a memoir (and most of the time, it is, although her relationship to the truth is variable: incidents described here have been contradicted by her elsewhere); it couldn't be filmed. The director and half the cast would be arrested . . . she has played the hand she has been dealt as skilfully and tenaciously as anyone could have, while still retaining a belief in beauty. And Strangeland comes over as honest and extraordinary
Written with a furious energy
A raw and uncompromising read . . . but it is also a tale of hope and inspiration . . . her writings, a combination of memoirs and confessions, are deeply intimate, yet powerfully engaging. Tracey retains a profoundly romantic world view, paired with an uncompromising honesty. Her capacity both to create controversies and to strike chords is unequalled in British life. A remarkable book - and an original, beautiful mind
A very readable book, and a surprising one too
[An] odd and powerful memoir
A combination of memoir and confession and gives an insight into the mind of one of contemporary art's most intriguing figures
Beautiful . . . as vivid a piece of writing about a childhood as you could hope to read - unguarded, open-hearted, shocking
Strangeland is a surprisingly lyrical and tightly written account of its author's journey so far
Poignant and sensitive
Emin writes with fierce clarity
An extremely well-written and readable book
Strangeland should not . . . be approached as a memoir unless a memoir can be understood to be a Tracey Emin artwork. She is no fake
Magical