Ahhhhh this is a completely beautiful memoir that will warm your heart, inspire you and make you feel appreciative for simpler times. Well written and wonderfully escapist,

Beautiful writing told through the story of a connection with the Earth. This book is a must read for anyone interested in nature and living in tune with nature. This would be an excellent gift for anyone interested in the subject. The cover art is gorgeous!

In 2017 Rebecca Schiller moved to the countryside in pursuit of "The Good Life" but instead of this being the story of running a smallholding, it's about the unraveling of Schiller's mental health. The style of writing may make the story feel disjointed at times but given Schiller's diagnosis of ADHD in adulthood, it makes sense that her thoughts and stories are not necessarily told in linear fashion. An enjoyable read, that makes you root for Schiller.

A truly wonderful author, filled with heart and pain. We had Rebecca visit us in store and every single person she spoke to seemed to want to stay forever, she really has touched on a complex and life changing diagnosis with truth, hope and humour. I highly recommend this title.

It took me a while to get into this, but once I did I was gripped. The depiction of the ups and downs of life in nature and life as a human being were very moving. Really beautifully told.

This is such a lovely brave and welcome read in these Times. So many think moving to the countryside is the answer to modern times, and that the Good Life is the solution to everything. But you always bring yourself with you and sometimes it can indeed undo you. That's when the healing power of nature can prove to help when little else can. A truly joyous read and am now following the author on Insta (praise indeed in 2021!)

Thank you for Netgalley and the publisher for providing an e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

When I started reading this book and didn't know how much of the book would be focused around the writer's mental health, nature and the process of moving to the countryside.

I found that this book was very complex and built with many layers. Myy favourite parts were the imagined life of previous tenants of the property, the detailed nature descriptions and the occasional lyrical writing.
The writer did an amazing job intertwining her mental struggles with the every day hardships of farming life, showing how moving to the countryside and being close to nature isn't always freeing and relaxing.

It took quite a few months to finish this book, because although it is amazing and written well, I found that if you sttruggle with mental health problems, reading books that could be triggering may prove counterproductive. This is exactly what happened in my case. It is soething very subjective and as I explained the book and writing is very good.

One thing you must understand about this book is that it's not just about a woman, her husband, and two children moving to a smallholding and attempting to make a difference by raising their own food (vegetables, goat's milk, and eggs). Schiller and her husband did agree to do this because it had been a dream of theirs, but the story became much more: for years Schiller had felt there was something wrong with her, that she wasn't good enough, that she was inordinately clumsy and said the wrong thing at the wrong time, that she fell into some projects with enthusiasm and others she was incapable of following through. And although raising crops, enjoying the flowers and trees with her children, and caring for her animals did "ground" her somewhat, she still found her emotions erratic—one morning she beats a pitcher against her head and destroys some china cups. Diagnosed initially with anxiety, she did as the doctor asked and found herself still at sea, with physicians not believing she wasn't being helped by the treatments. If this wasn't bad enough, just as she thought a correct diagnosis of her condition had been found, COVID-19 reared its ugly head.

Schiller writes beautifully, whether talking about the landscape, her children, the discoveries she makes about those who lived on the land previously, and even about her emotional difficulties, which make it easy to understand her confusion, pain, and sense of isolation. She also cares deeply, not only about her family and her farm, but about injustice, the past, and the future, and bares her soul. Reading this is an emotional experience in every sense. If you are looking for a simple "how I moved to a small farm and how it changed my life" narrative, I would look elsewhere.

I did not read the synopsis of this bool before reading it. The title and cover appealed to me as a gardener. It is so much more than a “we moved to the country and made a garden” book. The descriptions mental illness and certain feelings were put into words within this book….words that I have been searching for for years. This was a brutally relatable and at the same time, completely enjoyable read. I loved it. Full stop.

This book had been on my radar, so when I saw it was available on Netgalley I jumped at the chance. I'm interested in reading about women who are facing mental health issues, and I want more nature in my reading, and this seemed to be bringing those two elements together.

This is Schiller's memoir of moving to a small holding in Kent, leaving their life in London. It turns out to be a much larger undertaking than her and her family anticipated. Rebecca ends up taking on a lot of the work herself, burning herself out and into a frenzy of anxiety and stress. Either because of that or simply by coincidence, Schiller experiences a disintegration in her mental health. Paradoxically, order to cope and heal, she uses that contact with the earth, and turns to the history of the house and land through the women who came before her.

I'm not sure if you can have spoilers for memoirs, but I wont say what diagnosis Schiller ends up pursuing. What I will say is that I found this section fascinating, as it is the first time I've read of a woman exploring this condition. It spoke to me very acutely. It is an emerging area, particular for women and girls, and from a personal perspective is something I found very interesting. She is introspective and also incredibly deft at putting into words the way her mind works, how she views herself and how her thought processes develop.

I really enjoyed this book. Schiller has reference points which are possibly more cultured than mine, and so I didn't always connect with what she was saying, but I thought her writing style was really rich. At times, particularly when discussing the women (actual or as she imagines them to be) who inhabited the land before her, it's almost lyrical. I liked that she could have that element, but then also a much more real voice when talking about her everyday life. She can be quite direct and honest, particularly when it came to her relationship with her husband. I'm not sure how he'd feel about how he is portrayed in this book, but I do think he should count himself lucky she didn't apply more reflection than she did...

This book is definitely mental health first, nature second. But the nature that she does write about is both informative and incredibly beautiful. Schiller has a very elegant writing style, but elegant in a way that opens her up to the reader rather than keeping them at arm's length. I would love a further memoir from her to see where she goes from here, both in terms of her mental health and the future of her smallholding.

So much to take away from this beautiful book; it’s just so relatable, raw and real. It’s not your typical “I moved to the country and nature healed me” story, but instead is an honest depiction of mental health. Miller reflects on the highs and lows of life in the country, and life in general, and shows how being tethered to the earth helps to ground you in more ways than you’d expect. Highly recommend!

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review Earthed.

This book is so beautifully written and I would highly recommend it. Rebecca doesn't hold back, it is emotive, it is raw, it is happy and ever so sad.

while i found this to be a bit confusing to follow it is a very detailed look at someone with an undiscovered condition and how the mind works .It will certainly give one food for thought .

I appreciated this book for its mental health aspect as well as its gardening/farming aspect. There was a lot I didn't know about farming in rural England and I learned a lot of different terms and history that I was unfamiliar with. I could see myself in many of the paragraphs. It was also interesting to get a glimpse of a book that mentions the early days of Covid, though I did think that the book could have been tied up more succinctly around that time period. I would love to read more from the author with the focus strictly on mental health.

I did not realise before starting the book that mental health would be such a big part of it, but I think that made it more interesting and enjoyable. The author, Rebecca Schiller, had moved with her husband and two children to the countryside and is making big plans of planting vegetables and flowers, keeping hens, and living more sustainably - essentially my dream life - but is crippled by anxiety and something else which she is desperate to get a diagnosis for. The memoir is sometimes poorly structured - in theory it is organised by season, but there are many digressions about farming communities, women farmers from past centuries, and at times it can be hard to follow. After finishing the book I wondered if this jumping around with different ideas was maybe a deliberate illustration of the mental health diagnosis she receives at the end of the memoir. Regardless, some of these passages where she imagines the thoughts and lives of women whose names she found in local history books and archives felt unnecessary; but overall this is a well-written book, with interesting comments on privilege, mental health, meaning and nature.

'Earthed' was not what I was expecting, but I really enjoyed the experience. I expected a bit of escapism about moving to the country and what a hard but wonderful experience it has been etc. (you know the drill!) but the author does not romanticise smallholding life, and living that life with a family, at all. I found a real strength in her being able to show vulnerability; hardships and difficult experiences are not glossed over, which can often be the case in 'I moved to the country' books. But I especially loved that the author described her medical and relationship problems, and so honestly. It is important to say when, for example, the medical profession does not help women (the author had to work out herself what was 'wrong' for want of a better word, and ADHD is under-diagnosed in women). These things should be shared.
I was confused by the ending. It sounded like a year of Covid restrictions had resolved the relationship issues (I'm glad that the author's husband's apparent neglect is also not glossed over) but I wonder if maybe this book could have waited a year, or two years, so that the ending didn't feel quite so abrupt? It maybe we will see a sequel?
I also have to highlight that Saddleworth Moor is not in North Yorkshire (it's between Oldham and Kirklees).

I felt this book was more about the authors state of mind than nature and her decision to move to a smallholding. I would have loved to read more about that. Not my type of book unfortunately.

Timely, beautifully written, and thoroughly relatable. I adore nature writing and memoir that are mixed together in this way, and I found the inclusion of our pandemic realities to be so cathartic to read about. Highly recommend.

Thank you to Netgalley for gifting me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I want to give this a 3.5 stars; it's certainly more than a 3 for me.

I was drawn to the idea of a memoir that explored connection to the land and our wellbeing. Schiller moved her family to a smallholding in Kent, drawn to a dream of how they could live. This memoir details her journey of trying to adapt this new way of life, learn the land all whilst her mind begins to unravel.

I found her story to be really moving, incredibly vulnerable and raw. It felt like a privilege to be reading about her journey when it is so very recent. In her retelling of her life these past few years, she weaves her historical learning, folklore and vivid imaginings of the past with poetry. Most of the time I found this beautiful, but there were times I found the imagined stories too long and I was keen to read what she learnt or discovered, or just move onto the next chapter of her story.

Earthed is a stunning memoir of a woman, her mind and her smallholding to which she and her family moved to find a simpler way of life. The book weaves historical stories of the women who lived before Rebecca on the plot, with day to day family life, the unravelling of Rebecca's mind and her struggle to tend to the animals and land that comprise the smallholding.

I loved all of the book, but was especially moved by the passages in which Rebecca describes how nature, and in particular the sowing of seeds, soothes her when she's feeling untethered. She so beautifully distills how I feel about seeds and trying to calm my mind. It's as if she's writing from the inside of my head!

The writing is raw and violent in parts, and in others it's beautifully lyrical - especially when recounting the historical lives of women who have gone before her. There are stunningly moving passages describing the torment of knowing that something is wrong and the the searching and yearning to find a resolution.

Rebecca's commitment and attachment to the land and the earth shines through. Amongst all the struggles and worries, it's the ancient oak tree that sustains her and gives her comfort, alongside her deep love for her family. I love the references to the flowers that she grows and tends. But above all, I love the the understanding that Rebecca comes to about herself and about the necessity of having the earth underneath her fingernails.