The Naked Hermit: A Journey to the Heart of Celtic Britain

By Nick Mayhew-Smith

Descending into the darkness of a long-abandoned hermit's cave, wading naked into an icy sea to pray, spending the night on a sacred mountain, Nick Mayhew-Smith recounts an extraordinary one-man mission to revive the ancient devotions of Britain's most enigmatic holy places.

Based on ground-breaking research into the transition from Paganism to Christianity, this book invites the reader on a journey into the heart of the Celtic wilderness, exploring the deep-seated impulse to mark natural places as holy. It ends with a vision of how we can recover our harmony with the rest of creation: with the landscape, the weather and the wildlife, and ultimately with the body itself.

Follow the footsteps of holy men and women such as Columba, Patrick, Cuthbert, Gildas, Aidan, Bede, Ninian, Etheldreda, Samson and others into enchanting Celtic landscapes, and learn the unvarnished truth behind the stories that shape our spiritual and natural heritage.

• Language: English
• Publisher: SPCK
• Release date: May 16, 2019
• ISBN: 9780281077359

Nick Mayhew-Smith

Nick Mayhew-Smith lectures at Roehampton university. A former Financial Times journalist, he is the author of the best-selling Britain's Holiest Places which became a BBC TV series in 2013. A series based on his latest book, The Naked Hermit, will be broadcast this year on BBC One. He is a Reader in the Church of England and training for ordination.