Haunts of the Black Masseur

A delightful, profound cultural and literary history of swimming, bathing and the social meanings of water from ancient Greece to the modern Olympics

Publisher’s Weekly

[Sprawson] has an ornate style of prose, apparently smooth, but rippling with wit and candour… Haunts of the Black Masseur was a delight when I read it first time round and 25 years on, it strikes me as even better

Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday

A devoted and luminously romantic history of swimming

Guardian

­Original and sparkling… A haunting, sensual, slippery read that will make you long for seaweed on your skin and sand between your toes. A must for swimmers

Rebecca Wallersteiner, The Lady

A wholly original idea...a brilliant translation of a singular passion

Alan Ross, Times Literary Supplement

All too rarely does a book of striking originality float to the surface; this is one

Kirkus

An exhilarating plunge into some of the deepest pools inside our heads... Magnificently obsessive, this social and cultural history of swimming is the best book I read this year

J G Ballard

An extraordinary book: I thought I wouldn't care a fig for it but was suddenly and immediately enthralled. Exceptionally entertaining and compelling

Joanna Lumley

Fascinating

Sunday Times

Inspired by his own obsession with immersion, Charles Sprawson has written a mesmeric account, both sensual and erudite, of individual and cultural preoccupations with water.

London Evening Standard

Magnificent

Observer

One wants to put it down - and jump straight into the pool

Independent

This is an agreeably obsessive book, full of unusual information

Independent on Sunday