Melissa Harrison on Solitude

Queen Mary History of Emotions

An autobiographical essay on solitude, walking, the natural world, and emotions by the novelist and nature writer Melissa Harrison. Melissa reflects on what solitude has meant to her - and to others - from her childhood and early adult years to the recent period of lockdown in the summer of 2020. Recorded outside in the Suffolk countryside, this essay explores Melissa's feelings about living on her own and how she finds her most honest self through solitude in nature. She also reflects on what is has meant for women to be on their own in the past and the present. This essay was originally written in connection with the BBC Radio 4 series, 'A Short History of Solitude': https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000m57m Find Melissa's podcast 'The Stubborn Light of Things' here: https://melissaharrison.co.uk/podcast/ This episode is presented by Thomas Dixon and produced by Natalie Steed, as part of the 'Living With Feeling' project at Queen Mary University of London, supported by the Wellcome Trust: https://projects.history.qmul.ac.uk/livingwithfeeling/