Land Beneath the Waves
On sale
12th June 2025
Price: £24.99
Genre
Conservation Of The Environment / Coping With Illness & Specific Conditions / Environmental / General Interest / Health, Self-help & Well-being / Memoir & Biography / Memoirs / Natural History / Self-help & Personal Development
Selected:
Audiobook Downloadable / ISBN-13: 9781837996995
A moving, honest and revealing memoir of living with chronic illness, and an examination of the ways a relationship with the natural world can affect us, from debut author and nature writer Nic Wilson
When Nic Wilson begins researching the history of her local landscape and its wildlife, the last thing she wants to do is consider her own past. But as she unearths tales of giant sequoias, puss moths, nightingales and chalk streams, Nic realizes her affinity with the nearby wild began as a way to handle growing up with a mother who lived with a debilitating chronic illness.
Now in her forties, and struggling with mental and physical health herself, Nic revisits her childhood to trace the influence of the natural world on her life. As she grapples with revelations from the past, the boundaries between self and land become increasingly porous, and the lure of the wetlands around her home threatens to engulf her. Can she find the strength to face the waves of chronic illness – past and present – and learn to reach for steady ground?
With the natural world facing more threats than ever before, Land Beneath the Waves inspires us to develop a meaningful bond with our local natural spaces and landscapes, illuminating a hopeful path towards a better future for human and non-human life.
When Nic Wilson begins researching the history of her local landscape and its wildlife, the last thing she wants to do is consider her own past. But as she unearths tales of giant sequoias, puss moths, nightingales and chalk streams, Nic realizes her affinity with the nearby wild began as a way to handle growing up with a mother who lived with a debilitating chronic illness.
Now in her forties, and struggling with mental and physical health herself, Nic revisits her childhood to trace the influence of the natural world on her life. As she grapples with revelations from the past, the boundaries between self and land become increasingly porous, and the lure of the wetlands around her home threatens to engulf her. Can she find the strength to face the waves of chronic illness – past and present – and learn to reach for steady ground?
With the natural world facing more threats than ever before, Land Beneath the Waves inspires us to develop a meaningful bond with our local natural spaces and landscapes, illuminating a hopeful path towards a better future for human and non-human life.
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Reviews
An incredible journey, beautifully written, of nature's transformative powers.
With Nic Wilson's memory fragmented, her story is one that illustrates how our deep connection with the world around us is innate and how, irrespective of memory, it has the power to shape who we are. A heartfelt, honest memoir, lovingly told, that will invite you to value the nature on your doorstep.
A deeply honest, forensically detailed account of a life blighted by ill-health, yet redeemed by a profound connection with nature - a delight to read.
The natural world beats to its own rhythm, and when we tune in, we change state to become part of something much bigger than ourselves. When facing daily pain, both mental and physical, that can be a godsend. In Land Beneath the Waves, Nic Wilson demonstrates with gritty realism and deep feeling just how important nature is, no matter what our state of health. A moving book with depth and perception, and laced through with hope. Nature as friend, comforter and counsellor.
I loved Land Beneath the Waves. An honest and touching memoir, beautifully observed and written, and a wonderful advertisement for the importance of connection with the natural world.
Both ordinary and profound, Land Beneath the Waves charts a process most of us never manage: to give a true account of ourselves. It's also an illuminating testimony of chronic illness, one that fellow sufferers will recognise and the rest of us can only be enlarged by.
A brutally honest story that demonstrates why nature keeps us afloat. Nic Wilson is one of the most exciting emerging nature writers, her debut is an unstoppable tide, washing over the reader with pain but always with joy and kindness.
A vivid account of intergenerational trauma and how being attuned to nature can help you get through.
A beautiful, moving memoir highlighting the amazing relationships humans have with the natural world, and what they mean for us.
Land Beneath the Waves is a tender portrait of how a family grows in tandem with the natural world. The body, here, is re-storied: it becomes both an object of contemplation in the Wilson's quest to make sense of chronic illness across generations, and the stage for vital, lively connection with plants, water, land, and place. It is hopeful, vibrant, and alive.
When our health fails, nature seems harsh, yet in Land Beneath the Waves Nic Wilson offers a tender love song to both the body and the wild world, even when - especially when - both are under threat. Exploring the complex territories of debilitating illness, motherhood and finding healing in nature, her writing reclaims the great outdoors for those who so often are shut in. Hopeful and brave.