As a big fan of Rob MacFarlane, I had a hunch that I'd enjoy reading Roger's musings. Waterlog didn't disappoint. Episodic in nature, it's the perfect morning coffee book to spread over a couple of months when you want to let your mind wander, or perhaps float, through different landscapes and times.

I'm not a huge swimmer as in I would never even think about swimming the English channel or Corrievreckan, but reading about it was quite fascinating. Roger Deakin's nature writing-ish journeys all around the UK and swimming in all kinds of places was a very cool read. As somebody who spent a lot of time in Cornwall as a kid, I especially loved the bits about Fowey and the surrounding area. I just really liked this book. I of course loved some chapters more than others, but overall this book taught me a lot and I would also kinda like to go for a swim now. But it's freezing outside, so nah, let me wait for a bit more sun. ;-)

This is a book that is trapped in its own premise, a kind of snow-globe full of glittering prose that delights when shaken a bit but which stays dutifully within its bounds.

Deakin is a man enamored of rural late-empire Britain, a smallish island, talking of a shortish period where his world had rickety beachcomber cottages and noisy lidos and wild and healthy rivers. His spiritual homeland is for the earth and the people and freedom.

But even his lush prose cannot hide the fact that this world was a candle in the wind, long blown out, and his narrative in many ways was a romantic simulacrum of a place that may never have been.

Come for the words and the love and the innocent grace of the story. Stay for the icy cold plunges that Deakin almost makes you feel viscerally. A lovely man with a lovely pen talking about a lovey way of life.

There are worse ways to spend 400 pages.

An unparalleled deep dive into water, swimming, the natural world, and the essence of England. Simply an outstanding, deeply moving reading experience.

Beautifully written. I can't believe it took me so long to find out about this book.

Deakin šeće okolo i kupa se po Velikoj Britaniji i pritom waxa lyrical o ljepoti plivanja i evocira neki rustikalni Wind in the Willows štih dok prepričava povijesne zgode i nezgode mjesta koje posjećuje. Ne mogu zamisliti bolju knjigu.

I'll never complain again when the pool heater is broken and the water is 77 degrees after listening to the temperatures of the wild waters he swam in! What a delightful journey through Great Britain...at water level.

3.5 stars. I admire the way Deakin varied the way he describes his swims (I also kept my phone handy to look up unfamiliar flora and fauna). This travelogue, however, is not a quick read. There were times I didn't feel I'd have the patience for such contemplation, but then I'd be swept up by the beauty of his language or an amusing historical anecdote.