Wayward: Just Another Life to Live

by Vashti Bunyan

'Magical and transporting . . . Wayward proves that Bunyan has lived the best possible life, on her own idiosyncratic terms'
Maggie O'Farrell

'A gorgeous account of outsiderness and a map of how to live outside the boundaries and of striving for an authentic artistic life. A quietly defiant and moving work'
Sinéad Gleeson

'An epic in miniature . . . I loved - and lived - every sentence '
Benjamin Myers

In 1968, Vashti Bunyan gave up everything and everybody she knew in London to take to the road with a horse, wagon, dog, guitar and her then partner.

They made the long journey up to the Outer Hebrides in an odyssey of discovery and heartbreak, full of the joy of freedom and the trudge of everyday reality, sleeping in the woods, fighting freezing winters and homelessness.

Along the way, Vashti wrote the songs that would lead to the recording of her 1970's album Just Another Diamond Day, the lilting lyrics and guitar conveying innocent wonder at the world around her, whilst disguising a deeper turmoil under the surface.

From an unconventional childhood in post-war London, to a fledgling career in mid-sixties pop - recording a single written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards - to the despair and failure to make any headway with her own songs, she rejected the music world altogether and left it all behind. After retreating to a musical wilderness for thirty years, the rediscovery of her recordings in 2000 brought Vashti a second chance to write, record and perform once more.

One of the great hippie myths of the 1960s, Wayward, Just Another Life to Live , rewrites the narrative of a barefoot girl on the road to describe a life lived at full tilt from the first, revealing what it means to change course and her emotional struggle, learning to take back control of her own life.

Genres: Music, Memoir, Nonfiction, Biography, Autobiography, Travel, Biography Memoir

208 pages, Paperback

First published March 31, 2022

Reviews

[Dea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful recollection of a long lost time. I was entirely transported and transfixed by the evocative renderings of the author’s odyssey to the Outer Hebrides, and the adventures and characters along the way. Definitely one to savor.

[Rosamund Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not know of Vashti Bunyan until I read this book: in the 1960s, she recorded one album, but was deeply alienated by the music industry, and did not write songs again until her music was rediscovered in the early 2000s. This book is an account of her life during the 1960s -- she's someone my mother would call "a real hippie" as she drew away from ordinary life, and tried to forge her own path. Along with her boyfriend, she bought a horse and cart, and travelled from London to the outer Hebrides in the hope of finding cheap land and living in a collective on the Scottish islands. The journey with her boyfriend, and with Bess the horse, and Blue the dog, took eighteen months, and was full of hardships, as well as poor food. Vashti was ostracised by her relations for living with a man she wasn't married to, and the pair were extremely poor, often relying entirely on begging from strangers. Bunyan writes in a simple, direct way, and gives an insight into the ideas and dreams of young people of the 1960s, as well as giving a portrait of England and Scotland seen from a horse and cart. At times, I found the prose too rushed, and I was less interested in hearing about the music recording part of the story, so those sections didn't grab my attention. But overall the charms of this story won me over: this is warm-hearted, full of life, and enjoyable. Recommended.

You can listen to a song from her journey in the horse and cart, Jog Along Bess on YouTube.

[Sherrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vashti Bunyans journey through the hippy sixties, her attempts at a musical career which was rekindled 40 years after it began and her travels to the Outer Hebrides with a horse drawn wagon made fascinating reading. Worth a listen to her music as well.

[Martin Locock · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ringo Starr has complained that he always gets asked about the Beatles, when it was just 7 years of his long career. Vashti Bunyan is in a similar position: to the extent that she is known at all it is as the creator of Just Another Diamond Day, the Joe Boyd-produced album of modest domestic acoustic songs released to negligible public interest in 1970. It went on to have an afterlife as a sought-after rarity and became a byword among later folkie musicians. Now 50 years later Bunyan has published a memoir in which the writing and recording of the album is mentioned, but the focus of the narrative lies elsewhere - a chaotic early life, a stint as an Immediate Records singer as a protege of Andrew Loog Oldham, and, centrally, the year-long horse-and-caravan trek across the UK to reach Donovan's property on the Isle of Skye. The author is apparently candid, disarmingly so, recounting without rancour a life of willfulness and self-destructive tendencies, not the product of drugs or drink, but innate. A sad trail of burnt manuscripts, broken guitars, lost and stolen belongings is left in their wake; she regrets her willingness to be pushed around by family, friends, partners and producers and writes from a position of new-found assertiveness. On the road they encounter prejudice, fear and suspicion, intrusive police and intransigent landowners, but also the kindness of strangers. One reaches the present day relieved and astonished that she has made it through. Just Another Diamond Day caught a moment in time; this book provides a necessary corrective to the rural idyll evoked by the music, showing that the lyrical positivity was a deliberate artistic choice. I would recommend it to someone interested in what the 60s were really like, but suspect that fans of the album might be frustrated by the brevity and vagueness in which its recording is covered.

[Cloglover · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s so tender. She’s so tough. She isn’t precious about any of her story but I cried the whole book anyway.
Ranking this with Just Kids in how moved I am by a memoir

[Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I finished it, I had tears in my eyes and so much gratitude in my heart for this woman's honest, tender, and poetic soul.

[Anna-Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

So wonderful - she has a very delicate precision over her words, I feel it all with her. The drawings are also beautiful. Started reading in snatches at work at some point after seeing her at the Barbican with Ewan and Will, which was a magical night and I cried from beginning to end. She has such a quiet, tender majesty to her presence; something shimmery but in a way that welcomes you into her world; I'm so glad that she's still around performing and enchanting people with her timeless, profound and gentle music. I'm really resonating with the underhum of loneliness in her recounting of the time spent with Robert (which one? I get their surnames confused) in the caravan. Makes me want to take to the fields with my guitar! Maybe I'll wear a Victorian nightgown like some of the phonies in this town (they're not phonies, they're just girls being cool and fun. I need more of that in my life - more Vashtis and fewer Donovans... except OK if you're reading this you don't count and neither do any of the Mickey boys you're all cool!! As are my housemates. In fact, I really like most of the people I spend time with, boys included, and I'm grateful for you all. Doesn't mean I'm not still weirdly lonely sometimes, even in company! But in those moments I can just sit in the garden and listen to 'Here Before' and all becomes well.) "I liked to imagine she had been astrally projecting herself away into a place with no collar and chain, no harness, no pulling our house uphill -- a white apparition free to trick us and get us to jump out of our lazy bed. I hoped she was enjoying her starry trip."

[Salem · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the original demo recordings of Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind but didn't actually know really anything about Vashti Bunyan, so reading this gave me so much more appreciation for the fact that those are even available to listen to. Her journey through a career in music and through life in general is very inspiring and admirable, and she writes about it very beautifully. To friends reading this; I don't like to compare but this is quite similar to Patti Smith's memoirs, not so much in writing style but more so the general theme and feel of the story (feels weird to call it a story since both women wrote about their real lives but can't think of a better word). I think maybe the only slight criticism I have is that it was very linear and in my opinion didn't focus a lot on certain parts that seemed important (the biggest gap being about 30 years that seem to be gone over very quickly, and while I can imagine that time was filled with less of a Romantic lifestyle than travelling around Britain in a carriage, I'm still interested to hear about it). I know it's pretty logical to go through a biography in a linear way but it might have been interesting to play with the timeline a bit. There's really only a few very small flash-forwards or -backs.

[Faith Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOAAAA I devoured this book, read it so fast I am a beast.

This book is so wonderful so lovely so interesting, I loved it, rather than being a book from vashti about her life it feels more like a love letter to the people she met along the way on a journey she took in her 20s. More specifically, to the Irish travellers and Romany people she met, people who are usually outcast and discriminated against themselves, who showed her the most kindness and acceptance than she could’ve expected, teaching her ways to dry her clothes whilst living on the roads and giving her hot meals and places to sleep.

If you’re a fan of Vashtis music definitely clock in and read this BUTTT also go read it if you are interested in just reading a short non fiction book about a lady’s journey travelling from London to a island in Ireland in the 1960s!!! It’s a really interesting story overall even if you don’t care about her music, very well written and Vashti does does lovely illustrations throughout!

[chacierrr · Rating 5 out of 5]

So very good. And have loved her music for many years.

[Rose Armitage · Rating 5 out of 5]

Right that’s it I’m buying a horse & cart and I’m heading North

‘Diamond Day’ is the most gorgeous song in the entire universe, I’ve loved it for years but I could not have dreamed of what sort of life was behind it. This story is incredible. I watched the documentary first & that is utterly wonderful, I would recommend (https://you tu.be/yeDRrKZ4DUo?si=NK31li0KqTCyRmMF) but to read this after is going a layer deeper.

[Angela]

THIS WAS AMAZING. A total joy and medicine for my little broken heart.

As much as I love Vashti, I also think you don't need to know who she is to love this gorgeous story of a life yearning for freedom. I mean, come on! Two young people who set out with a horse named Bess and a little green wagon? Come on.

This is also the story of a second chance. What happens when you don't give up. When you let enough time pass for people to come around, and find your art at exactly the right time. Sadly, sometimes the people you've searched for your entire life — ones to believe in you and your work — come at the most unexpected times. Sometimes, it takes 30 years. But, hey, in the end, the ones who are meant for you will find you, right?

[Tracey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Utterly charming and honest. After recording a Mick Jagger and Keith Richards pop song in swinging sixties London, Vashti escapes from it all. On a quest with a horse and wagon, to reach Donovan's home on the Isle of Skye. Writing songs along the way, which become the album 'Just another diamond day'. After it's release, Vashti turns away from the music scene and making music altogether.

A chance discovery of a post of a web forum, asking 'whatever happened to Vashti Bunyan'? Led to the re-release of the album, touring and finally making new music. I'm awfully glad that internet search happened. Such beautiful songs deserve to be listened too.

[Sylvia Clare · Rating 4 out of 5]

gently unputdownable, a quickish read through a night when it was too hot to sleep and a lovely story of someone who lived her life on the wild side without any expectations and yet had so much to offer the world, a tale that true talent and destiny triumph in the end. Worth considering as a lovely memoir to read - gently allowing us to get to know the writer and singer vashti and why she is who she is.

[thefatflatcat · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

I loved this one, I can't really explain it properly - I couldn't put it down, I guess mostly driven by my curiosity about the life of a fellow musician. I stumbled across Vashti's Album 'Just another Diamond Day' and got really curious about her as a person, how she lived her life and what had made her turn her back on music at some point. I am glad her music resurfaced and that she wrote more songs later on. Her quiet voice and dreamy songs really do have something special.

[Rufus Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was great book, but way too short! Parts of Vashti's story that easily warrant a whole chapter are mentioned off-handedly in a single sentence.

I would love a biography written by someone else that is twice the length, I loved Vashti's life story, but I finished the book feeling she still hadn't really told it.

[ARealAcrobaticAct · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was a truly wonderful book, warming deep to the heart and mind. it was all that i had hoped and expected with sweet writing, reflective of her music.

[José Mesquita]

Her story is impressive. And her music is a blessing.

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vashti Bunyan is so cool and I'm so glad she wrote this special book to tell the story of her life and music. I've been meaning to read it since it came out and am now feeling a little silly for not getting to it sooner....but that's just me with nonfiction. In any case, understanding the backstory about how her music came to be, the inspiration, feelings, and landscapes behind every song enriched something that has long been close to my heart in unexpected ways.
It was interesting to find out that I was the same age she was when she wrote most of the songs on Diamond Day when I listened to that album the most, and that we were experiencing the same unsettling feelings of excitement for the future mixed with isolation and loneliness, even in relationships.

I'm so happy that she got to make the music she had always wanted to make after all those years, and do it the way she wanted to do it, and get the recognition and support she always deserved.

Oddly, I once worked with her great-niece at a clothing store when I was 19 (in Canada). She was from London, and her last name was Bunyan, and I was like....woah...like, Vashti Bunyan? and she was like: exactly like Vashti Bunyan- she's my great aunt! And she pulled up her sleeve and had a forearm tattoo of the Lookaftering hare. And then we put on Train Song.

[kieran :) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve loved Vashti since the first of her songs I’d heard, which I’m pretty sure was Diamond Day. I wondered what her life was like leading up to the album, then what happened to make her abandon music until 2005. This book answered my burning questions about her and more, doing so with beautiful storytelling that feels very personal and familiar. Learning about the truth behind songs like Timothy Grub, and understanding more about the wonderful mind that wrote them, felt like such a privilege. Vashti’s life is both wonderful and heartbreaking. I took so long to read this book because I didn’t want it to end and have to leave her world of Hebridean roads and Black Bess. So much has stuck with me since I began reading, mainly of the journey and the snapshot picture of moments in time. But also the suppressed anger and sadness that a mother could not show her children or partner. Or the disappointment felt at a seemingly failed career that brought such despair. I truly felt myself sink when she writes about screaming at the sky, or vowing never to sing again. Thankfully, she did sing again about her life. A wonderful life, not an easy one, but certainly worth the hardship to be here now. Thank you for writing, Vashti. I hope I meet you one day.

[Hallie Day · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wayward (2022) by Vashti Bunyan

After flicking through some pages after finding this in a little cafe / bookshop, I was instantly grabbed by Vashti's memories and just had to get it. A truly lovely story of her travels with her partner-at-the-time, her horse, and her dogs, entangled with logistics of album recording and perceptions of her. Maybe the first book I've read that has very nearly brought me to tears. There are some deeply melancholic moments just littered across this memoir which affected me nicely. While I will say that the back-end of the book becomes feeling a little rushed, with everything post-Just Another Diamond Day really being an epilogue, which is a shame as I would love to learn even more about her family life, even if it's all unrelated to music. Hopefully she writes again, because her voice is such a welcoming one and it's been a joy to read this past week.

[Amanda Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

the way this book altered my perspective in ways i wasn’t expecting and wholly allowed me to be immersed in such a dream state of creative and metaphorical thought…vashti bunyan is a visionary and this was a poetic retelling of a life in which she speaks to the most tender details and allows us into her delicate history; i am just in awe. her music and her legacy is so so special.

[Heather Wood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a beautiful book.

[Georgia Tromans]

Beautiful

[Rachel Lauto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just a scrumptious lookaftering.

[Talia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful and heartwarming memoir that has come to give me so much more appreciation for Vashti’s music. Read it, or don’t, I don’t really know what else to say.

[Holt Daniels]

vashti bunyan. your voice is magical and oh so gentle! thank you for this tale of life<3

[Arthur · Rating 5 out of 5]

Didn’t want it to end. Enjoyed a lot.

[stefania · Rating 4 out of 5]

gentle

[Lil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a tender memoir, I just adore Vashti's music