Through conversations with other hermits across the world, Fitton sheds light on the myriad – and often misunderstood – ways of living alone: from monks to hikikomori, and the largely ignored female hermit. It’s a place where the skylarks, puffins and herring gulls outnumber the humans, where “the night sky is gin-clear”. 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. She cleans holiday homes in the town she grew up in, all the while writing and longing to escape everything for a life is solitude and nature.

However, I found the editing of it, and having to keep going back to that point in my life, incredibly difficult. 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.

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.

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. Her work has appeared in the likes of the Guardian, Independent, Vogue, Times Literary Supplement, New Statesman, Literary Review and the BBC.

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.

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. 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. There is also good stuff about the privatisation of land, historical hermit "heros" and the psychological benefits of time alone.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). 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). 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 really healing, beautiful read for anybody who has experience with a toxic relationship and rural escape particularly.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 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. But then I became over-sensitive and would burst into tears over silly things like overcooking some lentils, and I thought, ‘Maybe it’s time to have a break’. 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.