Hermit: A memoir of finding freedom in a wild place

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Numbed from years in a destructive, abusive relationship, she faces an uncertain future and complete solitude.

The first 30 pages or so of this book nearly made me give up; Jade's story was so harrowing that I thought it was going to be some sort of tragi/misery-porn type memoir, masquerading as a book on hermits! Originally wracked by fear, Jade soon realises that he was the thing that kept her on edge, not their isolated home. The story of her breaking out of that relationship, taking time to be alone and learning to love and trust herself/others again was the main story arc. Her work has appeared in the likes of the Guardian , Independent , Vogue , Times Literary Supplement , New Statesman , Literary Review and the BBC. Written with often startling beauty, Hermit is an intimate account of the healing power of solitude.Fitton takes us with her as she learns to live alone, left by her partner as he moves out of their secluded barn, just weeks after they moved in. Hermit recounts how years in a destructive relationship to a former partner leaves Fitton numbed and her life unravelling.

Her work has appeared in the likes of the Guardian, Independent, Vogue, Times Literary Supplement, and The Financial Times. The _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report.With memoir you don’t have to transmogrify the experience but you do have to hold on tightly to that thread of experience and not get distracted by other tangents of your life. If you don’t have a boyfriend or your friends around, or children, you’re seen as crazy or lonely, or sad. 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. 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. This story reached me on a level I didn’t expect it to, and I asked about the ARC because I knew it was something I needed to hear at this time in my life.

She asks whether aloneness or hermitic living is possible through modern technology and transport, and what we really think of people who remove themselves from society. I was hoping to read about someone who was spending a long time on her own without a partner and how that would feel. She realises that home doesn't exist within walls, but within the landscape of her childhood home county.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. I do think starting a journal while I was living alone was pivotal in my appreciation of non-fiction. I will also ask about how they navigate difficult territory for themselves and those they love, and what has shifted or changed as a result of this process. When someone close to me suggested writing this book might help other people I dodged the notion like a jinx. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

Jade talks very honestly and often shockingly about her abusive relationship from the start of the book, which I found painful to read (perhaps her writing is too good for comfort).

The author embarks on another relationship but as lockdown hits, they find themselves holed up on the Scilly Islands with a hermit-like existence of limited food and resources. I’d written a short piece for The Guardian about being a modern-day hermit while having the experience of living alone in remote locations and loving it.