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Out of Time

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Out of Time

By: Miranda Sawyer
Narrated by: Miranda Sawyer
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About this listen

From the hugely respected journalist Miranda Sawyer, a very modern look at the midlife crisis – delving into the truth, and lies, of the experience and how to survive it, with thoughtfulness, insight and humour.

‘You wake one day and everything is wrong. It's as though you went out one warm evening – an evening fizzing with delicious potential, so ripe and sticky-sweet you can taste it on the air – for just one drink … and woke up two days later in a skip. Except you're not in a skip, you're in an estate car, on the way to an out-of-town shopping mall to buy a balance bike, a roof rack and some stackable storage boxes.’

Miranda Sawyer’s midlife crisis began when she was 44. It wasn’t a traditional one. She didn’t run off with a Pilates teacher, or blow thousands on a trip to find herself. From the outside, all remained the same. Work, kids, marriage, mortgage, blah. Days, weeks and months whizzed past as she struggled with feeling – knowing – that she was over halfway through her life. It seemed only yesterday that she was 29, out and about.

Out of Time is not a self-help book. It’s an exploration of this sudden crisis, this jolt. It looks at how our tastes, and our bodies, change as we get older. It considers the unexpected new pleasures that the second half of life can offer, from learning to code to taking up running (slowly). Speaking to musicians and artists, friends and colleagues, Miranda asks how they too have confronted midlife, and the lessons, if any, that they’ve learned along the way.

©2016 Miranda Sawyer (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers Limited
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Critic reviews

‘A straight-talking handbook for those of us who believe we're still at our peak in middle age but need a few honest signposts’ Viv Albertine

‘I spent a lot of time nodding along in agreement to this book as if it was my favourite record*’ Jeremy Deller

*‘Hallelujah’ by Happy Mondays (Weatherall & Oakenfold remix)

‘Sawyer is at her best articulating with honesty the angst many of this generation feel about getting older… the Morrissey of her journalistic generation’ Sunday Times

Praise for ‘Park and Ride’:

‘A great success … Such annihilation has been performed before. John Osborne did it. Sid Vicious was there. But this is prime stuff’ Independent On Sunday

‘Like Victoria Wood she has a talent for illuminating the absurdities of how ordinary people live their ordinary lives’ Observer

'Miranda Sawyer's suburban memoir ‘Park and Ride’ was as excellent as we expect’ Julie Burchill, Guardian (Books of the Year)

What listeners say about Out of Time

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This may well change my life.

Loved this, suddenly the last 4 years make sense. It wasn't just me, everyone feels like this! I don't need happy pills to carry on, I just need to be honest to myself.

I'm going to give this book to all my friends.

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An interesting and thought-provoking read

I really found this an interesting listen and I could really resonate with the feelings of the author. Sawyer is able to tell her story whilst giving us enough that relates to us and our lives to maintain our interest. She has clearly done a lot of research and there are interesting ideas and philosophies here that made me reflect as she has recently and I really enjoyed this. It was also interesting to think about someone who I would view as hugely successful in such a real way - Sawyer has written a book that was morose in parts but ultimately an uplifting read.

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Smart, funny and moving

Miranda Sawyer writes beautifully, covering a wide range of topics, and her delivery is like listening to a fascinating, self-deprecating friend. Her daft attempt at an American accent, when quoting some US experts, only adds to the enjoyment.

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Great listen. Perfectly accurate account of life as a mid lifer.

I would recommend any over 40 to read this book. It actually made me realise a lot of people are feeling the same as me, a little obsessed with time which is running faster than I can keep up. It's great to listen to someone put this into perspective.

Miranda has good voice to listen to.

I can only hope she gets her garden one day. Life is short. We have to make compromises to keep everyone happy and this book highlights that we have to roll with the punches.

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Thought-provoking and well-narrated

I very much enjoyed this work; Sawyer's down to earth voice really helps to put her thoughts and reasoning across.

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So it’s not just me then

Found out about this book quite by accident whilst listening to a Podcast.

Really enjoyed it and so much of it rings true but especially the optimism many of us felt about life and the future in the 90’s, the current pride we take in a nicely waxed table top
and also that nagging lost feeling that seems to have settled over me and many of my middle aged friends now.

Listen, laugh, nod and at the same time have your conscience pricked the more sobering topics this book discusses, the sort of stuff we would have just gone and got drunk about 20 years ago.

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clarity, reassurance and home truths.

This book describes me, physically & mentally. it's as if it were addressing me solely. letting me know I'm not alone thinking and behaving the way I do. It's an enjoyable, thought provoking and sometimes painful read. it's great & I'm buying more copies to gift at Christmas.

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Like the book very much but the reading not so much

Really enjoyed much of this, Miranda Sawyer is incredibly likeable and it chimes very well in terms of growing up in the 90s and hitting middle age. Miranda’s regular reading style is ok - and her voice so recognisably ‘her’ but her accents - American especially - are terrible and that’s offputting! Not a deal-breaker but very distracting.

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Life begins here!

Great for those, like me - who have just turned 40. Very resonant. Excellent time to have a life review and 'play with whatever we have left'.

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Sincere reflections

I enjoyed this account of Miranda’s encounter with mortality and her restless search for meaning.
She has examined her frantic life carefully and writes very well about her experiences. I’m older than her and have lived a very different life but
I found her account authentic and fascinating. She has a hunger for experience and has lived adventurously . She’s both hedonistic and reflective but her intelligence and honesty make her existential enquiry poignant and funny.

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