A WALK FROM THE WILD EDGE

BY JAKE TYLER, MICHAEL JOSEPH, £16.99 (HB)

Outwardly, Jake Tyler had made a success of his first 30 years of life. So why was he overwhelmed by such a tsunami of stress, depression and self-loathing that he came within a heartbeat of ending it all?

Rescued by his mother, Tyler recalls his happy outdoors childhood and hits upon the idea of immersing himself in nature as a possible remedy. And so begins a “3,000(ish)-mile” lap of Britain, covering every single national park and undertaken (almost) entirely on foot.

Similar in nature to Raynor Winn’s

The Salt Path – with its story of personal salvation wrought from an epic hike – this is a tale told with the same courageous honesty. On his first day, Tyler finds he’s barely able to stagger 12 miles. Consumed by apprehension, he immediately realises he has “hugely underestimated the walk” and promptly goes on a drunken coke-fuelled bender.

Happily, things improve. The book is filled with the diverse landscapes he has the pleasure of tramping through and the seemingly bottomless well of kindness lavished on him by strangers. And though he experiences setbacks – including having belongings stolen, succumbing to further alcohol/drug binges and his depression returning – the healing process continues.

While few of us may need to embark on such an epic enterprise to recover our mental health, there’s much to learn here about how walking, running, reconnecting with nature and trusting others can rekindle the joy of being alive. Dixe Wills, travel writer and author