Join us and Jade Angeles Fitton as we celebrate the publication of her debut book Hermit: A Memoir of Finding Freedom in a Wild Place. Jade will be in conversation with local author Elizabeth Ducie.
‘I never imagined that the wind would blow me here, to a kind of isolation I have never experienced… There is never anything out here but my shadow, that no one treads on any more’
When Jade’s partner leaves the barn they moved into just weeks before, he leaves a dent in the wall and her life unravelled. Numbed from years in a destructive, abusive relationship, she faces an uncertain future and complete solitude.
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. As Jade reacclimatizes, she considers what it means to live alone. 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.
Jade questions whether hermitic living is possible in an era of constant communication and increased housing costs as she finds herself financially unstable and itinerant. She realises that home doesn’t exist within walls, but within the landscape of her childhood home county. Lyrically written, this is an inspirational story of recovery, of finding home, and of celebrating solitude in the natural world.
‘A book of spellbinding brilliance by a writer of rare talent’. Tristan Gooley
Cost: £2 redeemable against the price of the book
Jade Angeles Fitton is a writer, journalist, and award-winning producer. She has published short stories and poetry; her first collection was published in collaboration with the Barnstaple and North Devon Museum featuring a number of celebrated local artists, with poems inspired by the museum’s archives and local myth and folklore. She is currently working on her first novel. Jade graduated her Master’s in Creative, Professional and Digital Writing with a distinction.
Elizabeth Ducie trained as a scientist and worked in the international pharmaceutical industry for nearly thirty years before deciding she wanted a complete change of direction. She gave up the day job, began studying the craft of creative writing, and now writes fiction and creative non-fiction more or less full-time. She has published five novels, three collections of short stories and a series of manuals on business skills for writers.
Accessibility Statement: Venue fully wheelchair accessible.