[1] Ross Raisin was born and brought up in Silsden, West Yorkshire, attending Bradford Grammar School.
[17] The novel focuses on Sam Marsdyke, a disturbed adolescent living in a harsh rural environment, and follows his journey from isolated oddity to outright insanity.
Thomas Meaney in The Washington Post compared the novel favourably to Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange, and said "Out Backward more convincingly registers the internal logic of unredeemable delinquency".
[18] Writing in The Guardian Justine Jordan described the novel as "an absorbing read", which marked Raisin out as "a young writer to watch".
[19] In April 2009 the book won Raisin the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award.