September - Sophie Pierce

Sophie Pierce is a writer with a passionate interest in our emotional connection to natural landscapes. Her most recent publication, Wild Swimming Walks: Exmoor & North Devon is the fifth in this popular, best-selling series, co-written with fellow walker and swimmer Matt Newbury.

The book features twenty-eight magical swims across the region and we will be walking to one of Exmoor’s most remote, idyllic pools.

You are invited to bring a picnic to enjoy by the river so do bring a blanket or cushion to sit on.

Sophie’s essays have been published in The Clearing (Little Toller Books) and Caught by the River. Her memoir, The Green Hill: Letters to a son (Unbound, March 2023), is a celebration of the natural world and the role it plays in our lives and relationships, as well as an examination of how beauty, a sense of place and the passing seasons can help us contend with our own mortality.

Above all, The Green Hill is Sophie’s story of navigating through trauma and loss, and towards a fragile, complicated kind of joy.

'The Green Hill is an extraordinary book… I thought of the fairy tale in which a captured princess must weave clothes from stinging nettles: Sophie Pierce has wrought something beautiful and useful from the darkest pain' Cressida Connolly, novelist and critic

Copies of The Green Hill are available to order from Seven Fables HERE

WALK DETAILS 

A level of walking fitness is required and dress appropriately as we walk in all weathers.

*Swimming is optional and undertaken at your own judgement.

WALK DISTANCE: 4.8 miles (7.7 km) WALK LEVEL: Easy to Medium

The walk departs at 4pm from Ashcombe Carpark, Simonsbath, TA24 7SH where we aim to return by 7pm'ish - depending on how much fun we are having and the weather! 

PARKING: The carpark is managed by Exmoor National Park and is Pay & Display, CASH ONLY. There is no other parking available in the village. Sadly there is no public transport so please car share with fellow walkers if possible.

PUBLIC TOILETS ARE LOCATED AT THE CARPARK

BOOKING IS ESSENTIAL 

SORRY NO DOGS ON THIS SPECIAL EVENT