Hermit: A memoir of finding freedom in a wild place

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Jade reads it beautifully and has a way of making you feel like you’re standing along side her in the landscape as she carries you through her story. This book was recommended to me by a friend just as I was starting a three month sabbatical from work. Now, three months after publication, I feel more grounded and less afraid, less like the world is going to explode. But you can't really start self-identifying as a hermit when you don't actually live out in the wilds alone, cut off from civilisation.

Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously. 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.Bought as an audiobook as I believed that the story was about someone living as a hermit who was sharing their experiences. A few people had told me my life was eccentric and would make an interesting book, but I wasn’t interested in writing personal narrative. In the 21st century is it possible to find this isolation, to become a hermit, with the constant hum of communication? 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.

She realises that home doesn't exist within walls, but within the landscape of her childhood home county. 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 were some nice moments with wild horses at night and a rare bird sighting event on the island. 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. Her work has appeared in the likes of the Guardian, Independent, Vogue, Times Literary Supplement, New Statesman, Literary Review and the BBC. Jade writing is so evocative, and she did a wonderful job at allowing even more of her personality to shine through her reading.

I think it helped my sister understand me better; because I’m not ‘a talker’ sometimes people think I’m shutting them out. They asked if she might sue me for writing that she took LSD and walking into Trinity College Chapel.

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. Just a very beautiful book about overcoming trauma, finding yourself, and what it means to be a human and live life well. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.