Polly Atkin - Some of Us Just Fall

“Long before I knew I was sick, I knew I was breakable . . .”

After years of unexplained health problems, Polly Atkin’s perception of her body was rendered fluid and disjointed. When she was finally diagnosed with two chronic conditions in her thirties, she began to piece together what had been happening to her.

Join Polly on stage as she traces a fascinating journey through illness, a path which led Polly to her current home in the Lake District where outdoor swimming is purported to cure all, and where every day she turns to the natural world for help.

From medical misogyny and gaslighting, to the illusion of ‘the nature cure’, this essential, beautiful and deeply personal talk examines how we deal with bodies that diverge from the norm and nature’s power to guide us through difficult times.

Polly's book Some Of Us Just Fall will be available to purchase at the Festival book store over the Festival weekend.

There will be a book signing straight after the event.

Published by Sceptre/Hodder & Stoughton.

Reviews

“It raises the standard of nature writing. This is both radical manifesto and activism in book form” - Sally Huband, author of Sea Bean

“Defiant and dazzling” - Freya Bromley, author of The Tidal Year

“Essential reading” - Jessica J. Lee, author of Turning

About Polly Atkin

Polly Atkin is a multi-award-winning writer, essayist and poet. She is the author of the poetry collections Basic Nest Architecture, which won a Northern Writers’ Award, and Much With Body, which was longlisted for the Laurel Prize, as well as Recovering Dorothy, the first biography to focus on Dorothy Wordsworth’s later life and illness. A strong advocate for the need for more disabled voices in the publishing industry, Polly co-founded the Open Mountain initiative at Kendal Mountain Festival, which sought to centre voices at the margins of outdoor, mountain and nature writing. Polly lives in Grasmere, Cumbria.