‘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 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 exhaustion, the not being believed.

Some of Us Just Fall combines memoir, pathography and nature writing to trace a 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.

From medical misogyny to the illusion of ‘the nature cure’, this deeply personal book examines how we deal with bodies that diverge from the norm, and why this needs to change.

This is not a book about getting better. This is a book about living better with illness.

Polly Atkin is a poet and writer. Her work includes Recovering Dorothy, the first biography to focus on Dorothy Wordsworth’s later life and illness. Polly was born in Nottingham, where she still has family.

Ticket price includes refreshments. Tickets are £4.00 or £20.00 to include the book Some of Us Just Fall