Hermit: A memoir of finding freedom in a wild place

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A blend of memoir, nature writing and a re-examination of women throughout history who have sought solace in solitude, Jade Angeles Fitton has written a stunning and original book about loss, love and overcoming one's demons. It's clear to see Jade has always had a pure love and joy of nature, with a wealth of knowledge that can only come from studying it with all her heart. Hermit is a beautiful written debut memoir drawing on the hermetic tradition that shows the power of being alone. I do think starting a journal while I was living alone was pivotal in my appreciation of non-fiction. I think the book would have benefitted from her admitting she isn't a hermit herself, but likes her own company A LOT, possibly due to some repressed PTSD as Louise Mullins says.

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. Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously. She realises that home doesn't exist within walls, but within the landscape of her childhood home county.Written with often startling beauty, Hermit is an intimate account of the healing power of solitude. The third stage of her time as a modern-day hermit co-incides with the covid lockdown of early 2021, a time when we were all hermits of a kind. If you don’t have a boyfriend or your friends around, or children, you’re seen as crazy or lonely, or sad. It is clear that the abusive experience she had drove her to solitude, but it’s also clear she was also drawn to the country because it was all she knew and it helped her reconcile herself with the losses from her childhood. So I was very careful when it came to writing about people who are a part of the story but weren’t the main thread of the story.

In the 21st century is it possible to find this isolation, to become a hermit, with the constant hum of communication? 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 very good thing was it didn’t put me off dreaming of wild solitude, if anything it made me more interested in experiencing it – I just have to convince everyone else it’s a good idea now (and maybe learn some essential life skills).

This book definitely wasn’t one I could read late into the night because otherwise I missed the beauty of her sentences.