Waterlog
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  • Published: 1 October 2014
  • ISBN: 9781784700065
  • Imprint: Vintage Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 368
  • RRP: $35.00

Waterlog

Formats & editions
Paperback
5 May 2000
EBook
31 May 2011
Audiobook
26 Nov 2020
Paperback
1 Oct 2014
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A passionate open-air swimmer, Roger Deakin travelled around the British Isles in search of the best places for a dip. Waterlog celebrates the magic of water and the beauty and eccentricity of Britain.

Waterlog celebrates the magic of water and the beauty of wild Britain.

In 1996 Roger Deakin set out to swim the British Isles. He swam in the sea, in rivers, in streams, tarns, lakes, lochs, ponds, lidos, swimming pools, fens, dykes, moats, aqueducts, waterfalls, flooded quarries and even canals. This funny, wise, delightful book documents his journey. It inspired a movement, creating wild swimmers out of many readers.

Detained by water bailiffs in Winchester, intercepted in the Fowey estuary by coastguards, mistaken for a suicide on Camber sands, confronting the Corryvreckan whirlpool in the Hebrides, Deakin discovered just how much of an outsider the native swimmer is to his landlocked, fully-dressed fellow citizens.

Waterlog is a personal journey, a bold assertion of the native swimmer's right to roam, and an unforgettable celebration of the magic of water.

INTRODUCED BY OLIVIA LAING

'A delicious, cleansing, funny, wise and joyful book, so wonderfully full of energy and life’ Jane Gardam'

'Roger Deakin is the perfect companion for an invigorating armchair swim' Daily Telegraph
  • Published: 1 October 2014
  • ISBN: 9781784700065
  • Imprint: Vintage Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 368
  • RRP: $35.00
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About the author

Roger Deakin

Roger Deakin, who died in 2006, was a writer, filmmaker and environmentalist of international renown. He was a founder member of Friends of the Earth, and co-founded Common Ground. He lived for thirty-eight years in a moated farmhouse in Suffolk. Waterlog, which was first published in 1999, became a word-of-mouth bestseller, and is now an established classic of the nature writing canon.

A filmmaker and writer with a particular interest in nature and the environment, Roger Deakin was the author of Wildwood and the highly acclaimed Waterlog. He lived in Suffolk, and died there in August 2006, aged 63.

Also by Roger Deakin

Wildwood
Swimming
Notes from Walnut Tree Farm
See all

Praise for Waterlog

A brilliant and compelling view of Britain from a few inches above its neglected waterways

Simon Usborne, The Independent

A delicious, cleansing, funny, wise and joyful book, so wonderfully full of energy and life. I loved it

Jane Gardam

A travel book like no other, it is rich and deep with insights on modern Britain

The Independent

A wonderful and romantic tale told by a true English eccentric...think Ratty, think Mole, think three men falling out of a boat...enchanting

Michele Roberts, Financial Times

Charmingly and elegantly written

Daily Telegraph

Deakin has written an aquatic Songlines.

Heathcote Williams

Erudite, funky and passionate, a total delight

Independent on Sunday

Highly entertaining...Waterlog is a book about a cold, wet subject written with a warmth and passion it surely deserves, but has rarely had before

Guardian

I jumped in with both feet and wanted to stay for more.

Griff Rhys-Jones

Roger Deakin is the perfect companion for invigorating armchair swim. Engaging, thoughtful and candid, he also has a wonderful eye

Peter Marren, Telegraph Weekend