Jenny Colgan

Deborah Orr rages against her small-town upbringing

Her bleak posthumous memoir of Scottish girlhood spills with regret and anger on page after page

issue 18 January 2020

Unlike a lot of people in the media, I didn’t personally know Deborah Orr, but I know many who did, and the intensity of their love for her burned very bright after her death in October. They spoke of her wild beauty, her fierce passions and smoky laughter; what great company she was; how every room was more exciting with Deborah in it.

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