The Green Hill: Letters to a son

(Hardback)

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In 2017, Sophie Pierces life changed forever when her twenty-year-old son Felix died suddenly and unexpectedly. Thrown into an unimaginable new reality, she had to find a way to survive. By writing letters to Felix composed during walks and swims taken close to his burial place by the River Dart Sophie gradually learned how to live in the landscape of sudden loss, navigating the weather and tides of grief.

The Green Hill collects these letters alongside Sophies account of the years following Felixs death, into which she weaves poignant memories of his life. What results is a deeply moving, beautifully captured record of how amid the rivers and rocks of Dartmoor, and in the sea off the South Devon coast Sophie was able to hold on to and nurture her bond with Felix, both in her mind and through a physical engagement with the landscape: actively mourning, rather than grieving.

This book is a celebration of the natural world and the role it plays in our lives and relationships, as well as an examination of how beauty and the passing seasons can help us contend with our own mortality. Above all, The Green Hill is one womans story of navigating through trauma and loss, and towards a fragile, complicated kind of joy.

Reviews

"In The Green Hill, Sophie Pierce writes about the sudden death of her son Felix with an aching and gentle honesty. Struggling to come to terms with the loss not only of the young man he was, but everything that he would eventually become, she finds herself overwhelmed not only by grief, but also by love. Her writing is illuminated by a remarkable attention to the beauty and consolation of the natural world, and by the wisdom and tenderness which has been so painfully acquired. This is a book that will be a great comfort to those who need it."--Sarah Perry, author of The Essex Serpent and Melmoth "Unforgettable, necessary. This beautiful book is a map, compass and ration of courage for anyone arrived in the landscape of sudden loss. Full of love and learning." --Tanya Shadrick "The Green Hill is an extraordinary book. It's not an easy read, because Sophie Pierce describes the harrowing grief of losing a child with such burning authenticity that it hurts. The letters to her dead son are desperately sad, but her immersion in the water - river and sea - and the glorious landscape around their home in Devon offer a kind of gradual solace, as well as surprising moments of joy. Nature cannot offer a cure for grief, but it can give comfort and bear a kind of witness. Pierce writes with remarkable clarity. I thought of the fairy tale in which a captured princess must weave clothes from stinging nettles: Sophie Pierce has wrought something beautiful and useful from the darkest pain." Cressida Connolly "Writing something so deeply painful in a way that is still hopeful is a skill . . . It helped me understand grief at that scale as well as learn about you all navigating life after such a huge rupture . . . It made me ache for Dartmoor." -- Ella Foote, journalist and swimmer

Author Bio

Sophie Pierce is a writer and broadcaster who lives on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon, where she loves to swim in rivers, lakes and the sea. For many years she worked for the BBC as a radio and TV reporter. She is the co-author, with Matt Newbury, of Beyond the Beach: The Secret Wild Swims of Torbay, Wild Swimming Walks Dartmoor and South Devon, Wild Swimming Walks Cornwall and Wild Swimming Walks Dorset and East Devon.

@sophiepierce
sophiepierce.co.uk