Polly Atkin, Some of Us Just Fall
£20.00
In stock
Some of Us Just Fall combines memoir, pathography and nature writing to trace a fascinating journey through illness, a journey 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 to help tame her illness. Polly delves into the history of her two genetic conditions, uncovering how these illnesses were managed (or not) in times gone by and exploring how best to plan for her own future.
Published 2023
Hardback: 304 pages
ISBN: 9781399717984
In stock
Description
‘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 – all the misdiagnoses, the fractures, the dislocations, the bone-crushing exhaustion, the not being believed.
From medical misogyny and gaslighting, to the illusion of ‘the nature cure’, this essential, beautiful and deeply personal book examines how we deal with bodies that diverge from the norm, and why this urgently needs to change.
This is not a book about getting better. This is a book about living better with illness.
Polly Atkin lives in Cumbria. Her two poetry collections are Basic Nest Architecture and Much about Body. She is also the author of a biography, Recovering Dorothy: The Hidden Life of Dorothy Wordsworth. Her latest book is Some of Us Just Fall.
