Hermits around the web – Hermitary
news, sites, and pages of interest about hermits and solitude
Daily Mail (UK) features an update on hermit Emma Orbach, who lives in rural Wales. “A woman who left her former life behind to live in the woodlands of Pembrokeshire 20 years ago tells presenter Ben Fogle she doesn’t care if other people call her ‘crazy.'” Includes short video clip. From UK TV series “New Lives in the Wild.”
A feature of The Guardian on the coronavirus lockdown is an interview with Sara Maitland, author of The Book of Silence and How To Be Alone. he article is titled “Sara Maitland: Savour solitude – it is not the same as loneliness.”
Laura Freeman writes musings on life in lockdown in TheSpectator under the title “The Art of the Hermit,” reflecting on famous hermits and their understanding of their own isolation.The byline:”Holed up in her sixth-floor London flat, Laura Freeman finds solace in these paintings of self-isolating holy men.”
URL: https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-art-of-the-hermit
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.