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 realises 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.

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Nic Wilson is a writer, editor and Guardian country diarist. Having taught A Level English for 12 years, she now works freelance for BBC Gardeners' World Magazine. Her work has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, including Under the Changing Skies: The Best of The Guardian's Country Diary, 2018-2024 (2024), Going to Ground: An Anthology of Nature and Place (2024), Moving Mountains: Writing Nature through Illness and Disability (2023) and Women on Nature (2021). Land Beneath the Waves is her first book.