Wayward: Just Another Life To Live
★★★★ Vashti Bunyan WHITE RABBIT. £16.99
One of cult pop’s legendary journeys. Less idyllic than it sounded…
The myth of getting it together in the country is always compelling, and few records have conjured the lure of escape better than Vashti Bunyan’s
Just Another Diamond Day. But one of the many impressive things about Bunyan’s memoir is how the romance of her endeavour – abandoning a music career in 1968 to head to the Outer Hebrides by horse-drawn caravan – is balanced with the grimmer realities of an arduous and probably ill-advised trip. There is a somewhat counterintuitive plan to get the horse pregnant mid-trek. One of the dogs chases a flock of sheep off the edge of a cliff. Cold, hunger and prejudice are more or less constant companions. Whether or not you know Bunyan’s airy, delicate records, it makes for a gripping read, though she writes well about music biz expediencies and cruelties, too. And there’s a happy ending of sorts: a thwarted talent, shorn of confidence, eventually reconciled to the brilliance of her art.