Waterlog, a cultish 1999 travelogue dedicated to the joys of wild swimming, has just been published in the U.S.
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The 1999 publication of Waterlog energized both environmental preservation and propelled the wild swimming movement in England. Despite the book’s influence, it wasn’t until last month that it was published in the U.S. This delay has confused me ever since I first read an excerpt of Waterlog several years ago, in a printed PDF from a former professor. But reading it anew in 2021 feels fortuitous: It’s the story of a restless man who’s ready to break from a confined existence.
Crucially, Deakin is not a professional, not a ribbon-winner. He’s clearly strong and determined, but he writes: “I am no champion, just a competent swimmer with a fair amount of stamina.” But he is an enthusiast. As the year of his swimming goes by, he becomes like an animal, with a “frog’s-eye view” of the world. “If I had a totemic ancestor,” he writes, “it was the otter or the eel, swimmers who often cross country by land, filling their instructive maps.
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