Hermit: A memoir of finding freedom in a wild place

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The chapters towards the end when Jade is in Lundy during the pandemic really draw the reader into the experience of living so simply and so cut off from the rest of the world. In Hermit, Jade wanders a sunlit, windswept, delicately drawn landscape of loss and longing, and in doing so finds the stillness at the centre of herself. There is never anything out here but my shadow, that no one treads on any more'When Jade's partner leaves the barn that they moved into just weeks before, he leaves a dent in the wall and her life unravelled. A stirring and evocative meditation on the human urge for solitude across the centuries, which subtly blends memoir and nature writing with a journalist's eye for detail and a poet's clarity of vision.

For her own life, struggling to find somewhere to live, she comes to understand certain features of simplicity and isolation. On the steep and rocky island of Lundy, off the coast of North Devon, even with 20 or so people around, I felt she got closer to what she was looking for.Although connection is associated with increased mental wellbeing, studies show that the more online we are, the more unbalanced we become in real life, she says. From the first minute onwards I was immediately absorbed by the authors lyrical prose and so swept along by her writing that I read the book cover to cover in a single day. Originally wracked by fear, Jade soon realises that he was the thing that kept her on edge, not their isolated home. I do think starting a journal while I was living alone was pivotal in my appreciation of non-fiction.

Reading this book was akin to being immersed in a long form poetic ode to nature and restorative solitude, and a welcome reminder to take regular time out for one self to honour the passing of time and the many nuances and experiences of a life hopefully well lived. Through conversations with other hermits across the world, Fitton sheds light on an extraordinary and misunderstood way of living which has survived into the 21st century – from monks to hikikomori, and the often-ignored female hermit. She leaves us with an intense emotional understanding both of contemporary loneliness and the hermit's older companion, solitude - that state in which 'every living thing knows a secret. Along the way, she demonstrates her love of nature, and her growing understanding that isolation can be powerful and not necessarily something to be feared or avoided. Tristan Gooley This distinctive, alluring memoir, reminiscent of The Outrun by Amy Liptrot, relates how Fitton slowly learns to live alone and celebrate solitude in the natural world.

A compelling, engrossing memoir that beautifully encapsulates the human experience (both the misery and the magic) of suddenly finding yourself rebuilding life from the ground up, alone.