Some of Us Just Fall (On Nature and Not Getting Better)

“In her contemplative memoir, Polly Atkin encourages everyone, especially those with chronic illnesses, to look beyond their own history and see the beauty in their world.” —The Washington Post

"Defiant and dazzling." —Freya Bromley, author of The Tidal Year 

"Essential reading." —Jessica J. Lee, author of Turning

"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 rendered 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 bone-crushing exhaustion, and on top of it all, not being believed by the very people who were meant to listen.

Some of Us Just Fall combines memoir, pathography and nature writing to trace a journey through illness– a journey which led Atkins to her cottage in England’s Lake District, where every day she turns to the lakes and land that inspire poets old and new to help manage, and purportedly cure, her chronic illness.

Join her as she delves into shimmering waters, selkie dreams, and the history of her two genetic conditions to uncover and learn from how they were managed (or not) in times gone by. Beautiful and deeply personal, Some of Us Just Fall is essential reading on the cost of medical misogyny and gaslighting, the illusion of 'the nature cure', and the dangers of ableism both systematic and internalized.

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