Some Of Us Just Fall (how nature helps genetic illness)

Some Of Us Just Fall is a unique book by a gifted writer, on how people with genetic illness can use nature to feel better. It traces a remarkable journey through illness – from misdiagnosis to wild swimming in the Lake District.

Polly examines her genetic inheritance, and her place in the natural world. After not getting results from doctors or her own body, she finally found some relief in nature.

The Lake District is famous for its rain. The wettest inhabited valley in England lies only 10 miles over the fells from my home. This is weather pushed to the extremes of itself.

Polly Atkin is an award-winning writer and poet who lives in the Cumbrian town where Wordsworth lived (she wrote a biography on his sister’s later life and illness). She co-founded the Open Mountain Initiative, which seeks to centre voices on the margins for outdoor, mountain and nature writing.

Land Beneath the Waves (how nature helps chronic illness)

Land Beneath the Waves is a moving and honest memoir of a nature writer, who lives with chronic illness. She begins by researching the history of her local landscape and wildlife, realising her affinity with the wild, as she coped with a mother who also had debilitating chronic illness.

Now in her 40s (and struggling with mental and physical health herself), the author revisits her childhood to trace the natural world on her life. And as boundaries between self and land become increasingly porous, and the lure of the wetlands around her home, threaten to engulf her.

Nic Wilson is a writer and Guardian country diarist. She taught A-level English before working freelance for a gardening magazine.