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Land Beneath the Waves
A moving, honest and revealing memoir of living with chronic illness, and an examination of the ways a relationship with the natural world can affect us, from debut author and nature writer Nic Wilson
When Nic Wilson begins researching the history of her local landscape and its wildlife, the last thing she wants to do is consider her own past. But as she unearths tales of giant sequoias, puss moths, nightingales and chalk streams, Nic realizes her affinity with the nearby wild began as a way to handle growing up with a mother who lived with a debilitating chronic illness.
Now in her forties, and struggling with mental and physical health herself, Nic revisits her childhood to trace the influence of the natural world on her life. As she grapples with revelations from the past, the boundaries between self and land become increasingly porous, and the lure of the wetlands around her home threatens to engulf her. Can she find the strength to face the waves of chronic illness - past and present - and learn to reach for steady ground?
With the natural world facing more threats than ever before, Land Beneath the Waves inspires us to develop a meaningful bond with our local natural spaces and landscapes, illuminating a hopeful path towards a better future for human and non-human life.
When Nic Wilson begins researching the history of her local landscape and its wildlife, the last thing she wants to do is consider her own past. But as she unearths tales of giant sequoias, puss moths, nightingales and chalk streams, Nic realizes her affinity with the nearby wild began as a way to handle growing up with a mother who lived with a debilitating chronic illness.
Now in her forties, and struggling with mental and physical health herself, Nic revisits her childhood to trace the influence of the natural world on her life. As she grapples with revelations from the past, the boundaries between self and land become increasingly porous, and the lure of the wetlands around her home threatens to engulf her. Can she find the strength to face the waves of chronic illness - past and present - and learn to reach for steady ground?
With the natural world facing more threats than ever before, Land Beneath the Waves inspires us to develop a meaningful bond with our local natural spaces and landscapes, illuminating a hopeful path towards a better future for human and non-human life.
- GenresNonfictionNatureMemoir
283 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 12, 2025
6 people are currently reading
92 people want to read
About the author
Nic Wilson
12 books3 followersNic Wilson is a writer, editor and Guardian country diarist. Her non-fiction nature memoir, Land Beneath the Waves, is due to be published by Summersdale (Hachette) in June 2025. She has nearly 30 years’ writing experience spanning academia, education, journalism and narrative non-fiction.
Nic works for BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine and has contributed to national magazines, journals and anthologies including Under the Changing Skies: The Best of The Guardian Country Diaries 2018-2024 (2024), Going to Ground: An Anthology of Nature and Place (2024), Moving Mountains (2023), described as a ‘first-of-its-kind’ anthology of nature writing by disabled and chronically ill writers, and Women on Nature (2021).
Nic works for BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine and has contributed to national magazines, journals and anthologies including Under the Changing Skies: The Best of The Guardian Country Diaries 2018-2024 (2024), Going to Ground: An Anthology of Nature and Place (2024), Moving Mountains (2023), described as a ‘first-of-its-kind’ anthology of nature writing by disabled and chronically ill writers, and Women on Nature (2021).
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
September 10, 2025
I really wanted to like this book better and thought I would. Nature has been instrumental for my own recovery journey from ME/CFS and I love reading books that take you into nature the moments that I can't be physically there.
Unfortunately, I gave up on the book. There are too many great books to spend my precious moments reading on books that don't make me happy or inspired. This book no doubt was very therapeutic for the author, but lacks a clear focus, storyline and pace to make it interesting for the reader, or at least for me.
Unfortunately, I gave up on the book. There are too many great books to spend my precious moments reading on books that don't make me happy or inspired. This book no doubt was very therapeutic for the author, but lacks a clear focus, storyline and pace to make it interesting for the reader, or at least for me.
July 14, 2025
I'm thankful to the author Nic Wilson,
NetGalley and Summersdale publishing for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
I asked to read this as the title, cover, and synopsis sounded perfect for an enjoyable informative read.
I felt saddened reading the treatment her mother went through from lack of understanding and misdiagnosis and the knock on effect on the whole family. The parrales to the authors treatment when she was ill understandably must have brought back/on so much trauma, mental strain, subsequently adding to the physical issues as well. I felt angry reading how both her mother and herself were dismissed and treated (often misogynisticly) by people claiming to know best. I empathise with having chronic illnesses and that constant exhausting battle of trying to get the most basic help. While dealing with the accusatory assumptions that make you feel you need to prove how unwell you are all the time.
I enjoyed the authors descriptions of the natural world. I can appreciate what she was trying to do bringing the stories of nature and self together but for me as a reader it didn't always connect. I'm sure other people will get more out of it but for me it often felt disjointed and just as I was beginning to understand, follow the story it jumped around in time line or person. Writing this book was clearly a cathartic experience for the author. Sadly for me as a reader something was missing which is why I can't rate it higher than I have.
NetGalley and Summersdale publishing for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
I asked to read this as the title, cover, and synopsis sounded perfect for an enjoyable informative read.
I felt saddened reading the treatment her mother went through from lack of understanding and misdiagnosis and the knock on effect on the whole family. The parrales to the authors treatment when she was ill understandably must have brought back/on so much trauma, mental strain, subsequently adding to the physical issues as well. I felt angry reading how both her mother and herself were dismissed and treated (often misogynisticly) by people claiming to know best. I empathise with having chronic illnesses and that constant exhausting battle of trying to get the most basic help. While dealing with the accusatory assumptions that make you feel you need to prove how unwell you are all the time.
I enjoyed the authors descriptions of the natural world. I can appreciate what she was trying to do bringing the stories of nature and self together but for me as a reader it didn't always connect. I'm sure other people will get more out of it but for me it often felt disjointed and just as I was beginning to understand, follow the story it jumped around in time line or person. Writing this book was clearly a cathartic experience for the author. Sadly for me as a reader something was missing which is why I can't rate it higher than I have.
August 19, 2025
Thank you NetGalley, the publisher and Nic Wilson for the the ARC in return for an honest review.
I generally enjoy these kinds of introspective nature memoirs, and this one was no exception. It reminded me a lot of Sally Huband’s Sea Bean. Both combine memoir of learning to live within physical limitations with very dense, but compelling, descriptions of nature and literature.
It is a gentle book and a bit of a slow burn - it took me a little while to get into and I have to admit, I found the personal memoir parts more compelling to read than some of the more detailed sections on local flora and fauna. But I think that is my failing rather than the author’s - I don’t have the taxonomical knowledge she does, so a lot of those sections fell a bit flat for me and I did end up skimming. A more expert reader with more interest in horticulture would get a lot more from those sections though.
What came across really strongly was the raw vulnerability of the author, and you could really sense how much courage it had taken for her to write this. I felt really personally invested in the author and was so glad to see her developing more self compassion as the memoir progressed.
Overall, I found this a really moving and thought provoking memoir, and I suspect it is one that will linger in my thoughts.
I generally enjoy these kinds of introspective nature memoirs, and this one was no exception. It reminded me a lot of Sally Huband’s Sea Bean. Both combine memoir of learning to live within physical limitations with very dense, but compelling, descriptions of nature and literature.
It is a gentle book and a bit of a slow burn - it took me a little while to get into and I have to admit, I found the personal memoir parts more compelling to read than some of the more detailed sections on local flora and fauna. But I think that is my failing rather than the author’s - I don’t have the taxonomical knowledge she does, so a lot of those sections fell a bit flat for me and I did end up skimming. A more expert reader with more interest in horticulture would get a lot more from those sections though.
What came across really strongly was the raw vulnerability of the author, and you could really sense how much courage it had taken for her to write this. I felt really personally invested in the author and was so glad to see her developing more self compassion as the memoir progressed.
Overall, I found this a really moving and thought provoking memoir, and I suspect it is one that will linger in my thoughts.
September 19, 2025
A memoir of illness suffused with the natural world
—
In this memoir suffused with the author’s connection with the natural world, the ambition to track a history of chronic illness in the family alongside lives lived alongside flora and fauna, particularly birds, rarely delved past a surface appreciation of nature and its incidental part as a balm against illness. If the author could have made the connection between the two parts of the book—the visceral descriptions of illness and the initial incompetence of the medical establishment, versus the obvious passion and gratitude for the animals and landscapes that helped on the road to health management—then the book might have had something to add to the genres of both memoir and environmental writing. The book is all one or the other, the veil between the two never breached by contextual, historical, scientific or literary sources, the illness seen from the inside, the natural world seen by an outsider.
—
In this memoir suffused with the author’s connection with the natural world, the ambition to track a history of chronic illness in the family alongside lives lived alongside flora and fauna, particularly birds, rarely delved past a surface appreciation of nature and its incidental part as a balm against illness. If the author could have made the connection between the two parts of the book—the visceral descriptions of illness and the initial incompetence of the medical establishment, versus the obvious passion and gratitude for the animals and landscapes that helped on the road to health management—then the book might have had something to add to the genres of both memoir and environmental writing. The book is all one or the other, the veil between the two never breached by contextual, historical, scientific or literary sources, the illness seen from the inside, the natural world seen by an outsider.
June 24, 2025
Nic Wilson’s memoir, Land Beneath the Waves, is a many-layered and beautiful thing.
She writes with honesty, curiosity and humility about her relationships with nature, landscape, art and people; and about her struggles with physical and mental health. Her story will be familiar to many who have encountered a confusion of health difficulties. Although the book goes to dark places, it is ultimately a hopeful and transformative read, as the author slowly gains more knowledge of her condition and of herself. Her deep immersion in the nature, landscape and history around her make the book a rewarding and delightful read.
The writing is careful and poetic, without ever being self-indulgent or performative. I listened to the audiobook, which she reads, and her narrative skills are just as exceptional as her writing.
She writes with honesty, curiosity and humility about her relationships with nature, landscape, art and people; and about her struggles with physical and mental health. Her story will be familiar to many who have encountered a confusion of health difficulties. Although the book goes to dark places, it is ultimately a hopeful and transformative read, as the author slowly gains more knowledge of her condition and of herself. Her deep immersion in the nature, landscape and history around her make the book a rewarding and delightful read.
The writing is careful and poetic, without ever being self-indulgent or performative. I listened to the audiobook, which she reads, and her narrative skills are just as exceptional as her writing.
July 21, 2025
A compelling, beautifully expressed meditation on chronic illness, psychological struggle and exploring the natural world.
June 11, 2025
I’ll come clean: I'm not a fan of memoirs. Or, more precisely, I dislike those populated with ‘oh, poor me’ recollections. So, I was a little wary of reading Nic Wilson’s ‘Land Beneath the Waves’, but I knew of Nic’s excellent writing for the Guardian Country Diary columns. That, the beguiling cover and wealth of positive reviews by prominent nature writers held sway and I decided to read the book. I am glad that I did.
Yes, this is a memoir that relates dark, difficult times, but overwhelmingly it is more a memoir of nature and its capacity to heal. Any ‘oh, poor me’ voice is absent. In fact, later in the book Nic admits that she finds writing the book difficult. As a writer with chronic illness myself I can, in many ways, relate to some of Nic’s experiences. Reflections on the impact of maternal illness in Nic’s childhood, and her own illnesses infuse the book, relating experiences that some might find impossible to believe. The medical profession does not always emerge well in this book. The sadness, the frustrations, the incipient guilt and soul-searching are illuminated throughout, but Nic never merges on self-pity. It is almost as though she has stepped outside herself and taken on the role of journalist. What permeates the book, and I think Nic is too humble to articulate this, is courage and determination, despite the many frustrations she encounters.
The greatest strengths of the book are those sections where Nic moves from any focus on her illness to examples of the relationship between the human and more-than-human world. It is out in the natural world that Nic finds comfort and healing. Two features permeate the book throughout, namely a capacity to research and relate that research in a highly readable way, and an ability to write beautifully. She endorses the ‘contemplative pace’ approach to noticing the natural world and relates what she sees with feeling and accuracy. Her words sometimes embed humour. For example, when she observes rubbish dumped in a snicket she has discovered, the reader cannot ignore the irony of it containing three recycling boxes! Similarly, completing her walk along the snicket, she notes a new Astroturf lawn and a ‘paved stub of a front garden decorated with a scattering of ash-grey aggregated’. Here we see the dissonance, seen so widely nowadays, between the beauty of the natural world and modern practices that are far from contemplating the positives of nature.
This is not an easy read at times, but the reader is rewarded with such clarity of description, quality writing, enlightenment of the impacts of coeliac disease, adenomyosis, depression and anxiety, and the power of the natural world to heal. I, for one, hope that this experience spurs Nic to write more.
Yes, this is a memoir that relates dark, difficult times, but overwhelmingly it is more a memoir of nature and its capacity to heal. Any ‘oh, poor me’ voice is absent. In fact, later in the book Nic admits that she finds writing the book difficult. As a writer with chronic illness myself I can, in many ways, relate to some of Nic’s experiences. Reflections on the impact of maternal illness in Nic’s childhood, and her own illnesses infuse the book, relating experiences that some might find impossible to believe. The medical profession does not always emerge well in this book. The sadness, the frustrations, the incipient guilt and soul-searching are illuminated throughout, but Nic never merges on self-pity. It is almost as though she has stepped outside herself and taken on the role of journalist. What permeates the book, and I think Nic is too humble to articulate this, is courage and determination, despite the many frustrations she encounters.
The greatest strengths of the book are those sections where Nic moves from any focus on her illness to examples of the relationship between the human and more-than-human world. It is out in the natural world that Nic finds comfort and healing. Two features permeate the book throughout, namely a capacity to research and relate that research in a highly readable way, and an ability to write beautifully. She endorses the ‘contemplative pace’ approach to noticing the natural world and relates what she sees with feeling and accuracy. Her words sometimes embed humour. For example, when she observes rubbish dumped in a snicket she has discovered, the reader cannot ignore the irony of it containing three recycling boxes! Similarly, completing her walk along the snicket, she notes a new Astroturf lawn and a ‘paved stub of a front garden decorated with a scattering of ash-grey aggregated’. Here we see the dissonance, seen so widely nowadays, between the beauty of the natural world and modern practices that are far from contemplating the positives of nature.
This is not an easy read at times, but the reader is rewarded with such clarity of description, quality writing, enlightenment of the impacts of coeliac disease, adenomyosis, depression and anxiety, and the power of the natural world to heal. I, for one, hope that this experience spurs Nic to write more.
June 24, 2025
This is a perfectly narrated book by the author, full of beautiful and evocative descriptions of nature and, at times, gentle humour from a courageous account of a woman coming to terms with her childhood and her current health struggles. A very honest and relatable listen, Nic is a brilliant writer who moved me to tears at times but this book is ultimately uplifting and comes highly recommended.
June 18, 2025
A beautiful book full of wisdom and warmth. It is harrowing and challenging in places, but never self-pitying. Although primarily concerned with nature, there is also lots of information on music, history and geology. It reminded me of Francis Spufford’s “The Child That Books Built” and Isabella Tree’s “Wilding”. Highly recommended!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews