Category: United Kingdom

 

Minster FM in the UK offers an item titled: “Brother Walter Willman was a hermit who lived a solitary life in All Saints Church in North street in York.”

The summary: “An obscure English religious hermit was interviewed by BBC in 1961. He had one moment of fame when BBC TV’s Alan Whicker came to meet him in 1961 for the Tonight programme, a sort of One Show of the period.The film has just been put on the BBC Archive Facebook page. [Although the Minster FM item represented by the URL includes the five-minute video.] He had lived on his own since the 1930s in a tiny room and was a rare example of a religious recluse.

It’s thought that he died in the 1970s.”

The BBC interview is available: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p098q0zn

URL: https://www.minsterfm.com/news/local/3029814/video—-meet-the-hermit-who-lived-in-york/

As part of its “In Our Time” series, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a discussion of the “Philosophy of Solitude” with host Melvyn Bragg and several philosophers back in June 2014. The site mentions the Hermitary website in its list of “Links and Further Reading.” The entire 43 minute program is available for listening on demand on the web site or for download.

URL: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b046ntnz

The Daily Mail (UK) reports on the equivalent of British hikikomori in an article titled “Rise of the ‘hermit kids’: More than 40,000 British teenagers are locking themselves away for months over anxiety about their futures and obsession with social media.” The study was conducted by the University of Glasgow.

URL: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6869071/More-40-000-British-teenagers-locking-away-months-anxiety-future.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490

The Sunday Post (UK) reports on an exhibition and conference on the topic of “300 years of solitude: Why we remain fascinated by world’s most famous castaway three centuries on: From Swiss Family Robinson to Castaway, Gilligan’s Island to Lost, the story of castaways washed up on desert islands has intrigued us for centuries.” The historical shipwrecked sailor Alexander Selkirk was the model for Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe.

URL: https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/300-years-of-solitude-why-we-remain-fascinated-by-worlds-most-famous-castaway-three-centuries-on/