Pan Macmillan has bagged Finding Hildasay, a memoir from veteran Chris Lewis which reflects on his time spent walking the United Kingdom coastline. A man who lived in Shetland for nine months while walking the length of the UK is to release a book about his journey.

With just weeks left on the tenancy of his flat and a deteriorating financial situation, Lewis realised he was facing homelessness. I felt it was a very, very calm place for me, while everyone else was rushing around for toilet rolls,” he says. As I began to regain feeling in my fingers and toes, it burned so strongly that I just sat in tears of pain. I think everyone will be able to relate to Chris’ journey, and I’m thrilled Pan Macmillan has the chance to work with him on his first book. It was there, the most barren his route had become, that he found within himself the pride and respect he needed – and his journey became all the more remarkable.Making an impulsive decision to set himself a challenge – walk the entire coastline of the UK – Chris gave himself a few days to rustle up a tent and walking boots, then left for good with just a tenner in his pocket and two days’ worth of food. Whatever the exact figure, it is an enormous endeavour and one which is the subject of Lewis’s exhilarating book, Finding Hildasay, which he wrote on an A4 pad while walking, and is named after the uninhabited Scottish island where he lived alone for three months during the first Covid-19 lockdown. He said the book was “raw, honest and a true insight of what it takes to achieve something like this with no back-up, no sponsor and no money”.

He has, he says, learned so much when it comes to talking about mental health and how “the more I opened up, and the more honest I was, then actually, the more that would help people”.Then while surfing, he cast his eyes along the coastline and realised it was the only place he really wanted to be. Finding Hildasay is Christian Lewis’s brutal but beautiful true story of survival, walking the coast of Britain – his dog Jet in tow – and finding a different way to live. But to be open to life-changing events, discovering who you are and the real meaning of happiness is extraordinary. Since Magnus joined them, the couple have slowed in pace, using a van to carry their things and sleep in when needed. That morning, all my new friends, whom I’d now named ‘Team Northern Ireland’, drove down to Belfast to see me off.

Not long after leaving Hildasay, in August 2020, Lewis was camping by the Whaligoe Steps, on the northeast coast of Scotland, when he met Kate, who was on an adventure of her own, the North Coast 500.The first thing I noticed about the tent was how light it was, and yet it had three times the strength of any tent I’d owned prior to this. Little did he know at the time just how long it would take to cross the finish line — and the encounters that lay ahead that would turn his life around. The Shetland Times reserves the right to decline or remove any contribution without notice or stating reason.

One estimate puts the coast of England, Wales and Scotland – plus their islands, which Lewis has included in his expedition – at 11,023 miles. Here I was, a more focused person, more in tune with my own mind with a purpose and a glint in my eye. Having just spent the last month house-hopping down the coast, as much as I appreciated and loved the company of my new friends, I realised how much my tent had become more than just a place to sleep for me. Five years later, he has navigated the west coast, Northern Ireland, the hard-rock cliffs of Scotland and the perimeters of the Scottish Islands. A self-described “all-or-nothing kind of guy”, Lewis has added even more to his adventure, completing the Three Peaks challenge – climbing the mountains of Snowdon, Scafell Pike and Ben Nevis – along the way.Five years later, Chris has navigated the West Coast, Northern Ireland, the hard-rock cliffs of Scotland and the perimeters of the Scottish Islands . Now I was finally out of the force of the wind, my body began to warm – the part where the real pain sets in. I had no gimmicks or things to make life comfortable; no books or any entertainment other than my phone. Within three days of his life-changing decision, Lewis had gathered the meagre supplies he needed for the trip. The synopsis reads: "In August 2017, suffering with severe depression, Chris Lewis made an impulsive decision to set himself a challenge – walk the entire coastline of the UK.