7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A gem of a book, May 18, 2007
This review is from: Waterlog: A Swimmer's Journey Through Britain (Paperback)
This book kept me company through a cold late winter and spring, easing me through green waterways and onward toward more and more pure experience. Reading it, I felt as if I were lying somewhere sylvan, watching light flicker through leaves. Deakin's prose is so infused with his appreciation of the natural world that the reader breathes it in and feels more relaxed and, well, at one with the world. His vignettes of the quirky people who practice wild swimming are great mini-essays, too, more gentle and sympathetic than, say, Bill Bryson's. I for one will miss his voice sorely.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
a pleasant exercise, May 7, 2003
This review is from: Waterlog: A Swimmer's Journey Through Britain (Paperback)
Perhaps this will appeal mostly to readers with some history and experience of the UK landscape. Deakin is eccentric in his passion for swimming "wild" and takes us with him on a personal odyssey of exploring the coastal and inland swims around Britain.
His writing very effectively describes both the athletic demands of his undertaking and things ecological and to do with the natural history of UK waters, in vibrant detail. The sceptics among us are nevertheless buoyed up by his passion for the subject.
In addition, he has researched the local history of most of the swimming venues and is able to account some interesting tidbit with each swim. Deakin entertained me with his various references to other literary works and to more generally celebrated persons or events in the British psyche. This all combines to create a gently nostalgic account of British water-landscapes, which are in the most part lost to the majority of its inhabitants today.
I was left knowing very little about the man, but hungry for more anecdotes of other swims. Quite charming.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Swimming as a subversive act, June 27, 2009
This review is from: Waterlog: A Swimmer's Journey Through Britain (Paperback)
Roger Deakin was a one off. A witty, learned, eccentric environmentalist and film-maker, he lived a solitary existence in his rackety Suffolk farmhouse, surrounded by a moat where he took daily swims. A great loss to literature, and the environment when he died recently aged 63.
Deakin takes off through the seas, ponds, lakes, rivers and pools of Britain to embark on an aquatic adventure through the country. It is a frog's eye view of the landscape, and the perspective offers a cleansing, healthy and subversive view on the surrounding area.
Frequently Deakin is prevented from swimming where he wants by jobsworths and signs from the dreaded 'environment agency'. But he braves opposition, as well as some extreme conditions to swim in a huge range of places, from the Cornish coast to the caves of Yorkshire, from the urban lidos of London to following Orwell's footsteps on the remote Scottish island of Jura.
There are some wonderful scenes and descriptions in the book. My favourite was his visit to Polruan in Cornwall, where every year 10 year old schoolchildren swim across the harbour in front of cheering parents before gathering for a huge hot chocolate and cream buns party. A hugely nourishing educational experience, as Deakin records, and a refreshing change from most modern day swimming in schools where budget cuts and health and safety fears prevent children from swimming more than a few derisory lengths in sanitised conditions.
Nature swimming is a subversive act as it necessitates veering off the regulated roads, cycle paths and official walkways that agencies would have us travel along. Deakin enjoys a quirky angle that freshens up the well worn genre of British travel writing. He combines the water log of his various swims with a wealth of local history, literature, anecdote and environmental advice. He was a meticulous and intelligent noticer of the natural world around him and his vision of Britain encourages the reader to take a fresh look at his or her life, get out of the house and seek out some quirky and refreshing swims of their own.
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