Roz Savage, MBE (1986, Law) has written a book, The Gifts of Solitude, drawing on her ocean experiences, to offer advice on how to survive, and even thrive, in lockdown. Roz was the first woman to row solo across three oceans: the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian. She spent cumulatively over 500 days of her life at sea in a 23-foot rowboat.

Inspired by the pandemic and her time on rowing solo across three oceans, Roz has authored a book that offers practical, psychological, spiritual advice to those in lockdown across the world. The first chapter is available for free on her blog.

She has also started a new series of her podcast, entitled “The Roz Savage Project“, exploring issues around coronavirus and lockdown with guests including solo polar explorer Pen Hadow, author and psychotherapist Sue Brayne (On Death and Dying), and Buddhist monk Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo.

Roz has previously written two books about rowing the Atlantic Ocean, Rowing the Atlantic: Lessons Learned on the Open Ocean, and the Pacific Ocean, Stop Drifting, Start Rowing: One Woman’s Search for Happiness and Meaning Alone on the Pacific. 

She spoke about the process of writing The Gifts of Solitude:

“I wrote the book in 17 days, I say I wrote the book in 17 days, but in many ways it was 15 years and 17 days, as I’ve been speaking, teaching, writing, reading, and thinking about these ideas for a long time now.”

The Gifts of Solitude is now available as an ebook and paperback on Amazon. You can find out more about Roz in her profile.

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If you are involved in research or frontline work relating to COVID-19 that you would like to bring to the attention of the Univ community worldwide, please email communications@univ.ox.ac.uk.

Published: 17 June 2020

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