A Brave Life: The Story Behind Our First Book

Over the past eight years, we have been collectively shaping who we are and the kind of wellness we want to champion.

As the wellness world has grown louder than ever, we've found ourselves drawn in the opposite direction. Towards simple foundations that have helped humans thrive for generations.

Somewhere along the way, our thinking outgrew the room on the product label. So we wrote it down, documenting what we value, in what would go on to become A Brave Life - our first-ever book, which publishes on 15 October 2026.

Ahead of its launch, Jenni Kiddle, In-House Nutritionist, takes you behind the scenes and explores how, together, our experts crafted the ultimate companion for living a brave and nourished life.

What is A Brave Life about?

A Brave Life isn’t your typical wellness book.  You won't find checklists to complete or rules to follow. Instead, you'll find ideas to return to whenever you need to nourish your wellbeing and live bravely.

Drawing together evolutionary biology, nutritional science, anthropology, psychology and ancient wisdom. Each chapter invites you to step inside the world of Ancient + Brave and join the conversations we've been having around our own table for years about rhythm, nourishment, bravery, nature and what it really means to live well.

Rather than offering another routine, it explores the cycles all around us, already woven into our lives: day and night, the changing seasons, the lunar cycle and, for women, the menstrual cycle. Alongside them are practical rituals, reflections and gentle invitations to notice your body, your environment and your place within it.

Why did Ancient + Brave write A Brave Life?

Beneath the noise of the modern world, the endless optimisation and the pressure to do more, track more and perfect more, our bodies are still searching for the same things they always have. Rhythm over hustle. Nourishment over restriction. Curiosity over certainty. Progress over perfection and connection over optimisation.

Our bodies long for nature. For community. For ritual and rhythm.

These aren't trends. They are part of us. Woven into our biology and carried through generations in stories and shared rituals. Waiting to be remembered.

The clearer this became, the more we realised these conversations deserved something deeper than the back of a label, a social post or an email campaign could deliver.

They deserved a place to live.

And that's how this book began.

This is your invitation. To step inside the world of Ancient + Brave. To join the conversations we've been having around our own table for years. About rhythm, nourishment, bravery, nature and what it really means to live well.

“Living bravely isn't about doing more or pushing harder. It's about having the courage to trust your body, honour your rhythms and choose progress over perfection.”  

How to read A Brave Life 

A Brave Life isn’t another plan to complete or protocol to perfect. Nor is it a book to race through in a weekend.

It's one to return to.

At the turn of a season. At the beginning of a new day. Under a new moon. After a difficult week. On a quiet Sunday morning. On the days you feel wonderfully yourself, and on the days you've drifted a little further away.

It begins with why.

Why, despite having more health information than ever before, do so many of us feel disconnected from ourselves? Why does wellness often feel so complicated? And what happens when we stop searching for the next answer and begin remembering what our bodies have known all along?

Drawing together evolutionary biology, nutritional science, anthropology, psychology and ancient wisdom, Part One explores the foundations of what it means to be human. It looks at the ancestral blueprint that shaped us, the ways modern life has quietly pulled us away from it, and why living well is more about restoring the conditions in which we naturally thrive.

Part Two asks a different question. How do we apply this? How do we actually live this way?

Rather than offering another routine, it explores the cycles all around us, already woven into our lives: day and night, the changing seasons, the lunar cycle and, for women, the menstrual cycle. Alongside them are practical rituals, reflections and gentle invitations to notice your body, your environment and your place within it.

“You are not separate from nature. You are shaped by the same forces that turn the seasons and pull the tides."

Along the way, you might discover why watching the sunrise changes your biology, why certain practices soothe the nervous system, why our ancestors organised life around the seasons, or why something as simple as sharing a meal has always been one of humanity's oldest acts of wellbeing.

You won't find checklists to complete or rules to follow. You'll find invitations and ideas to return to.

Our hope for this book

We don't expect this book to change your life overnight. Because this wisdom already resides within you. 

Some will stay with you immediately. Others may stay with you until life makes sense of them. The chapter that speaks to you in spring may not be the one you reach for in winter. The page you skim today may become the one you return to years from now, simply because you're reading it as a different version of yourself. 

We hope that this book invites you to live life with a greater awareness. Moving with it, rather than against it. More connected. More curious. More in tune with the rhythms that have been there all along.

We hope it helps you notice the sunrise. To welcome the changing seasons. To understand your body with more curiosity and less judgement. And to build rituals that hold you. 

If this book does that, even in the smallest of ways, then it has found its purpose.

And if, now and then, you find yourself returning to these pages, we hope they help you return to yourself.

 A Brave Life publishes on 15 October 2026. You can preorder it now: Preorder on Amazon.

FAQs

What is A Brave Life about? Is it a wellness guide or a philosophy book?

Published in October 2026, A Brave Life is a beautifully presented lifestyle book written by the wellbeing experts at Ancient + Brave. A practical guide for living bravely, it draws together evolutionary biology, nutritional science, anthropology, psychology and ancient wisdom, answering why we feel so disconnected from ourselves and how to return to ourselves in the modern world.

Who wrote A Brave Life?

A Brave Life was written by Ancient + Brave, authored by the whole team rather than one person, which felt right for a book that started as a conversation.
It opens with a poem by the author Donna Ashworth, followed by forewords from our founder, Kate Prince, and our Director of Nutrition & Education, Jo Woodhurst, a BANT registered nutritionist and naturopathic nutritional therapist (DipCNM, mBANT, CNHC, BA Hons in Education). Jo wrote much of the book alongside our in-house nutritionist, Jenni Kiddle, a nutritional therapist (DipION, mBANT, mCNHC, BSc), the two of them shaping the words and the nutritional knowledge running through every chapter. They were joined by our Director of Science & Innovation, Dr Jenna Macciochi (BSc Hons, PhD, PGCertHE, FHEA), an immunologist who brings evidence-backed science on longevity, and by Lara Petruccelli, who imagined the book and brought it to life. Susannah Taylor created the beautiful illustrations seen throughout, and the photography that shaped our brand is by Beth Steddon, with recipe photography by our long-term collaborator, Graham Carlow.

Who is A Brave Life written for?

A Brave Life is for anyone who is looking to reconnect with themselves. Who feels that wellness has started to feel like another thing to perfect.

It will feel like a homecoming for anyone who already lives close to the seasons and be useful to anyone who is interested in learning more about living with nature, rather than against it.

Ultimately it is 

Where can I buy or pre-order A Brave Life?

You can pre-order A Brave Life on Amazon, Waterstones, Foyles and directly from our publisher, Penguin Random House.

It will also be available from local independent bookstores, and you can order it using the ISBN: 9781785046902.

When does A Brave Life publish?

A Brave Life publishes on the 15th of October 2026. The book is published by Ebury Press, part of Penguin Random House.