CLAIRE NELSON
Agent: Sarah Williams
Claire is a New Zealander who moved to London in 2005 to pursue a life of travel and writing. She was sub-editor for Jamie Oliver’s magazine for several years, and as a freelancer writer has been published in magazines including ELLE, Delicious, Trek & Mountain, and Lodestars Anthology.
Despite living a “good on paper” life, Claire suffered from a growing sense of disconnection and isolation, and in March 2018 went travelling in North America to seek out the things she felt were missing – in particular, a connection to the great outdoors. On 22 May she was on a solo hike in Joshua Tree National Park when she slipped and fell into a canyon, was seriously injured and unable to move. She spent the next four days and three nights battling with extreme desert conditions and her own state of mind in order to stay alive.
Claire’s memoir THINGS I LEARNED FROM FALLING is the story those days in the desert and what led her there, as well as what the experience taught her about loneliness, fear, anxiety and the wounds in our daily lives - and how to survive it all.