Creative writing workshop at Leeds International Festival with Projecting Grief on 20th August - Sign up here > How a 10-day digital detox totally changed my life In need of a mental reset, Radio presenter and author Sonya Barlow ditched her My book The Tidal Year is out today! As a special thank you to my podcast listeners, I've included a free preview of the prologue and chapter one from the audiobook read by me. Here's more about the book:

Freya Bromley is a writer living in London. Her work explores love, loss and healing through nature and she’s written for publications including Apple Music, Lonely Planet, Financial Times and National Geographic Traveller. After Tom’s death, I focused on always having a million things on my mind to avoid thinking about his absence. Most of my distractions involved drinking, dancing and dating the wrong people. So, for New Year’s Eve 2019, when I was 22, I was planning on indulging in my triad of vices.Multi-hyphenate Steve Jones, TV presenter, podcaster, novelist and librocubicularist, discusses his debut novel Call Time. Grief in the Wild: Finding Refuge in Nature for Good Grief Festival on 28th October - Register here > Online Recordings

Freya’s first book The Tidal Year is published by Coronet. She’s appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Live, spoken at bookshops and festivals around the UK and led workshops at Cambridge University.

Freya Bromley, author and podcaster of The Tidal Year, expounds upon the virtues of swimming in every tidal pool in the UK and how it helped her grief.

Every other breath we take comes from the ocean, so it's important that we look after it! Susanne Masters has great tips for how. This week's guest is plant scientist, ethnobotanist and the author of Wild Waters. We spoke about sustainable harvesting, swimming with seals and the Bosphorus Cross-Continental Swim. Sir Ranulph Fiennes - I'm the only person to walk round the world — Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Russell Watson, Philippa Gregory, Rev Kate Bottley The Tidal Year is a story about the healing power of wild swimming and the space it creates for reflection, rewilding, and hope. An exploration of grief in the modern age, it’s also a tale of female rage, sisterhood loss and love in the modern age.” All have communities that meet regularly for swims and fundraise to keep them swimmable. I spoke to a woman at Clevedon Marine Lake in Bristol who said that swimming there saved her life. You might think that sounds hyperbolic, but after travelling around mainland Britain to swim in these places, I learned that it was a common theme. People are swimming to answer a question inside them. 'Why do I feel like this? When will I feel better? Can I keep going?'

Clips

How nature helped me reconnect with myself after my parents died Pilates teacher Abby McLachlan, 48, shares how spending time in nature eased the People meet me and there’s a sense that we know each other already because they have often spent quite a lot of time with me. There’s a natural intimacy there, and it has been beautiful.” First published in 1947, Varsity is the independent student newspaper for the University of Cambridge. Let's talk about men's mental health! This week's guest is Tom Mason the co-founder of Blue Balls Cornwall, a cold water swimming group specifically for the men of Cornwall. We spoke about how cold water develops resilience, building a community and tidal pools.

The Tidal Year is a true story about the healing power of wild swimming and the space it creates for reflection, rewilding, and hope. An exploration of grief in the modern age, it's also a tale of loss, love, female rage and sisterhood. How tidal swimming helped me make sense of incomprehensible grief When writer Freya Bromley's teenage brother died, she found an unexpected way to

In spite of this situation, we are going to look at inventive ways to look at serving our readership with digital content and of course in print too! This is something I do. I’ve often made the mistake of thinking that if I change something in my life, I’ll change my mood. As though my mind has a Restore to Factory Settings button that can only be activated by pottery classes or new Pilates bands. I like to think this at least makes me more original than getting a breakdown haircut. This podcast resonated with me on such a deeper level than just swimming. Freya and guests talk about over coming fears, grief, moving on from different chapters in your life and family. I adored this book, with its beautiful imagery and depictions of the British coastline. It’s hard to give structure to your own story but Freya manages to convey her development via clear plot points while refusing to portray grief as linear. I loved the honesty of this book; the anger and injustice of a teenage boy dying too soon, the guilt of dating and living without him, and the difficulties of connecting to other family members after a huge shift in your dynamics.