“I’m learning how to get back into life,” says freed British-Egyptian pro-democracy activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, as he recovers from more than a decade in jail in Egypt.

“I’m doing much better than I would have expected,” he told the BBC from Cairo, speaking publicly for the first time since he walked free last month. “Much better than most people would have expected.”

Alaa Abdel Fattah, 43, was Egypt’s best known political prisoner until 23 September, when he was released after being granted a presidential pardon. It followed a long campaign by his family – backed by celebrities such as actors Judi Dench and Olivia Colman – and lobbying by the British government.

He’s now busy enjoying “the small things, which are the big things”: watching his two-year old niece, Lana, dance and seeing his 13-year-old son Khaled’s excitement in music.

“It’s these small things that matter,” he says. “And being immersed in them immediately was amazing, is amazing. It’s still amazing.”

After the dark days of despair which he suffered in jail, he described the “sensory overwhelm” of being free: feeling Cairo’s sun on his skin, seeing the moon in the night sky, and receiving hugs from his family after years when the only human touch he had was from guards searching him.

A writer, intellectual and software developer, Mr Abdel Fattah rose to prominence during an uprising in 2011 that forced the former president, Hosni Mubarak, to resign.

He was a familiar face in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the focal point of the demonstrations, and he gave voice to the protesters’ demands. He was arrested in October that year after writing an article about the killing of protesters by the Egyptian military.

In 2013, he was arrested again and served a five-year sentence. Six months after his release, in September 2019, he was back in jail – after sharing a Facebook post about torture.

He says the worst conditions were in Scorpion Prison – inside Cairo’s Tora jail complex – where he was first held.

“It was total lockdown,” he told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. “We weren’t allowed out of the cell at all – no exercise hour, no reading, no music, no nothing. And it was damp and underground.”

He was told by the officer running the prison that he would be incarcerated indefinitely.

Later he was moved to another facility with improved conditions, where he was allowed books, exercise and TV – enabling him to watch Premier League matches and cheer on Egyptian footballer, Mo Salah.

But for him, and his family, there was always a fear that his imprisonment would never end.

“At one point I drowned in suicidal ideation. It was despair. So I don’t know that I coped. But I survived.”

Alaa Abdel Fattah recounted how he nearly died in 2022 when he escalated a hunger strike, and gave up even water, until he lost consciousness.

“When I came out of that, I stopped the hunger strikes because I was a bit terrified of how far I went,” he says.

It led to a “deep change” in him. “I’m not 100% sure how to articulate that change, but I’m coming out with a different energy.”

His 69-year-old mother, Laila Soueif, also came close to death and was twice admitted to hospital in London while on hunger strike to push for his release.

He feels “great relief” that he no longer needs to worry about her, now that the struggle for his freedom is over. And the feeling is, obviously, mutual.

Mr Abdel Fattah hopes to travel back to the UK within the next few weeks with his son, Khaled, who is on the autism spectrum and attends a special school in Brighton. “I’m looking forward to going to the beach with Khaled,” he says. “I haven’t been to the beach since 2014.”

It is not yet clear that the Egyptian authorities will allow him to travel. Human rights groups accuse them of systematic repression of peaceful critics with, according to the US state department’s most recent assessment, “serious restrictions on freedom of expression” and an “environment of impunity.”

Alaa Abdel Fattah’s release still leaves thousands of political prisoners in Egypt’s jails.

As for his own future as a free man, he’s not yet worked out what comes next – although he says that his days of street activism are “definitely” over.

“I’m still committed to a fight and struggle for a better world,” he told the Today programme. “But what this means and what shape it’s going to take, I don’t know.”

“I’m coming out in to a very different world and finding my place in it, and figuring out what to do is going to take time, I think,” he says. “Right now, I’m just in recovery mode.”