Waterlog - A Swimmer’s Journey Through Britain
Roger Deakin, Chatto & Windus, 0-7011-6652-5
Inspired by John Cheever’s “The Swimmer” Roger Deakin sets off on a swimming tour of the British Isles.
From the Scilly Isles off Cornwall up to the Gulf of Corryvreckan in the Scottish Inner Hebrides he embarks on a swimming trek as he swims in the sea and along lakes, rivers, lochs, moats, canals, lidos, pools and quarries giving him a unique perspective on attitudes to open water swimming throughout the UK.
Reading like a travel log this is a very personal account of his trek through the British Isles. The chapter on the Scottish Inner Hebrides was the inspiration for SwimTrek’s own trip to this region.
The Swimmer John Cheever
Vintage 0-09974-830-4
Swimming to Antarctica Lynne Cox
Random House 0-375-41507-6
Wind, Waves & Sunburn Conrad Wennerberg
Breakaway 1-55821-615-4
Covers the history of marathon swimming. There is a fascinating chapter on unplanned marathon swims due to ships sinking and planes crashing.
Haunts of the Black Masseur-The Swimmer as Hero
Charles Sprawson, Jonathan Cape London, 0-224-02730-1
The book explores the differing values associated with swimming by various cultures. The English, saw bathing as a means of social reform. Germans linked swimming to a Faustian quest for knowledge, to spiritual perfection and a cult of athleticism.
In the U.S. swimming has been associated with refuge and withdrawal, citing as examples F. Scott Fitzgerald's fiction and David Hockney's paintings of Southern California. This invigorating excursion affords a fabulous dip with some of Swimming’s Great heroes: Byron’s crossing of the Hellespont, Allan Poe’s river swims, Captain Webb’s English Channel crossing and Johnny Weissmuller’s five year undefeated reign as world champion.
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