Hermit: A memoir of finding freedom in a wild place

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By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. In Hermit , Jade Angeles Fitton embarks on a heroic quest of self-discovery, creating in the process a beautiful, sensitive work about the challenges and solace of the natural world. The story is interesting and Jade's observations on nature are poetic and lyrical, she really captures the essence of what it is to walk alone and really "see" nature.

The backdrop of beautiful North Devon, stunning Lundy Island and briefly London, felt very familiar having spent lazy childhood summers on Exmoor and even, coincidentally, in the village where the author spent her childhood. Slowly, the synopsis continues, with the help of Devon’s salted cliffs and damp forested footpaths, Jade comes back to herself and to life discovering the power of being alone. It is also a book about trauma and dissociation, power, home and love, all set in the depths of Devon, a setting which Jade Angeles Fitton paints exquisitely. Every time I see one, I am very tempted to apply (although always lack most of the essential skills required).Editorial director for non-fiction Zennor Compton acquired world rights in an exclusive submission from Max Edwards at Aevitas Creative Management. So, hmm, an enjoyable read for the nature aspects but the constant self-referencing as a hermit got a little annoying if I'm honest.

However, I found the editing of it, and having to keep going back to that point in my life, incredibly difficult. If it were a stone, it would be quartz—the hardest most sparkling bits that are left after everything else is worn away. Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously. How time passes at a different rate when you're alone, she says, and how you are better able to access memories. Which can make living with the exposure of these revelations quite uncomfortable at times for the everyday me!About half way through I was preparing a wee review in my head about class and the privilege of retreat, but absolute fair play to the author who then deftly dealt with that in the body of the book, and examined practicalities of holiday home culture + the housing crisis in rural areas. Her work has appeared in the likes of the Guardian, Independent, Vogue, Times Literary Supplement, and The Financial Times.

And I believe the trauma is the reason she chose to live the way she did, so it's an important subject barely mentioned as though in passing. While clearly not a hermit in the traditional sense, as we learn from information interspersed throughout the story about hermits past and more present (including Norwich’s own Mother Julian, who I am intrigued by), I think the author (with her phone, the internet and a husband etc) could perhaps be considered a modern version. I didn’t because I didn’t want people to have to read anything painful about me if it wasn’t going to get cleared through legal. I found it difficult to even look at initially, so I left it on the window seat so I’d have to walk past it and force myself to get used to its presence. 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.The definition of Hermit isn't so much the sticking to the constraints of a 'religious practice' but, infact, epitomised by the desire to isolate oneself from the myriad of societal constraints, and sadly the people that can make life toxic. Hermit is a beautiful written debut memoir drawing on the hermetic tradition that shows the power of being alone.

It’s hard to feel sympathy with Jade’s behaviour constantly continuing in a coercive controlling relationship yet women do. Slowly, with the help of Devon’s salted cliffs and damp forested footpaths, Jade comes back to life and discovers the power of being alone.

In Hermit you’re balancing two very different things: the abusive relationship you were in, with this need to be solitary, although it feels essential to our understanding of the present day to know where you’d come from. The author tells us that her long term relationship had broken down, but it was abusive, so there are a number of issues that she has to deal with in building her new life on her own. There is also good stuff about the privatisation of land, historical hermit "heros" and the psychological benefits of time alone. After trawling through this difficult section, we land upon Jade making a life for herself on her own and enjoying solitude.