Book
Hermit was published in 2023 published by Penguin Random House/Hutchinson Heinemann.
Summary
‘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 that 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.
Reviews
Rapturous. The Times Literary Supplement
Piercingly lyrical … Beautifully observed. The Sunday Times
Her beautifully written tale provides food for thought…you’ll adore this powerhouse of a book. Daily Express
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. The Bookseller
Craving refuge from her frenetic front-row job, Jade Angeles Fitton fled to remote Devon, where she realised she loved being a 21st century hermit. Mail on Sunday
A dreamy, beautiful book about the consolations of solitude. 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. Hopeful and open-hearted. Cal Flyn, author of ‘Islands of Abandonment’
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. I loved it. Emma Gannon
Hermit is a beautiful written debut memoir drawing on the hermetic tradition that shows the power of being alone. Katherine May, author of ‘Wintering’
A book of spellbinding brilliance by a writer of rare talent. Tristan Gooley
Written with often startling beauty, Hermit is an intimate account of the healing power of solitude. Though deeply personal, it explores universal truths about society and the human condition. A brave, brilliant and important book. Lee Schofield, author of ‘Wild Fell’
I loved Hermit, hoovered it down in a day. Jade Angeles Fitton’s life – from barns to huts to islands – is cleverly, brilliantly but honestly recorded. her search for boundary lines between herself and the beauty of the world is both engaging and true. She leaves us with an intense emotional understanding both of contemporary loneliness and the hermit’s older companion, solitude – that state in which ‘every living thing knows a secret.’ M. John Harrison, author of ‘Wish I Was Here’
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. Catherine Taylor
Fitton brings heart, body and soul to this compelling story of deliberate living. A book about solitude – hers and other people’s – that runs rich with love for the natural world. Tanya Shadrick, author of ‘The Cure for Sleep’
In Hermit, Fitton has actually created that very thing for which she yearns: a place of serenity and calm and reflection. Reading it, I felt the overheated racket of the world recede, even as I attained further knowledge of its workings. It’s a forest glade of a book: a hidden shore; a moorland escarpment where the voices you hear are the only ones that truly matter. It’s a peace not reached without struggle and fight, which is true of all the best and necessary things. Niall Griffiths, author of ‘Stump’
‘Hermit is as much a story of escape as one of finding one’s place in the landscape. 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.’ Joanna Pocock, ‘Surrender’
A stirring and evocative meditation on the human urge for solitude across the centuries, which subtly blends memoir and nature writing with a journalist’s eye for detail and a poet’s clarity of vision. Stu Hennigan, ‘Ghost Signs’
To coincide with Hermit, Jade has been invited to speak at Cheltenham Literary Festival; the G10 Arts, Philosophy and Economics Festival in Amsterdam; Appledore Book Festival; Lewes Speakers’ Festival; Bude Lit Fest; Libraria London; Daunt Books; and Bath Spa University, among many others,
She has given a number of writing workshops and retreats, including at The Arvon Foundation.