First of all I have to confess that I have yet to read Roger Deakins’ Waterlog which was first published in 1999, a book inspired by the John Cheever’s classic American short story The Swimmer published in 1964. Waterlog has been the inspiration for many wild water swimmers ever since and in turn has now inspired Joe Minihane’s to write Floating a Life Regained.

This book is both a literal journey re-tracing Roger’s adventures round the UK’s hidden (and not so hidden) watering holes, and an inward journey as he discovers how to cope with anxiety. Some of Roger’s swims thankfully remain the same, some prove annoyingly impossible to find and others are now sadly fenced off with the inevitable NO SWIMMING notice blocking the path.

Joe was first bitten by the wild swimming bug in the Summer of 2010 when his wife Keeley (who the book is dedicated to) suggested they went for a swim at Hampstead Mixed Ponds. Although a keen indoor swimmer this was a whole new world where he found “a mental and emotional buzz to match the sweet ache of limbs”. Rather than staring at the monotony of a tiled pool floor he realised that heads up breast stoke afforded him a totally new perspective on the world. To quote Waterlog “You see and experience things when you are swimming in a way that is completely different from any other way. You are in nature, part and parcel of it, in a far more complete way than if you were on dry land, and your sense of the present is overwhelming”.

Author Joe Minihane

Unlike Roger, whose first excursion was to the Scillies, Joe’s first waterlog trip is to our neighbouring Tooting Bec Lido on a hot August afternoon “Come on in, the water is freezing”. After that he’s off to Highgate Mens Pond and the shock of their cold showers “it’s good for you!”. Cold water and friendly advice seem to go hand in hand.

It’s after here that things become more adventurous and far more challenging, especially for someone who does not drive. With the aid of re-kindled friendships, helpful taxi drivers and sheer determination Joe painstakingly sets out to re-trace all of Roger’s swims conquering his fears of toe nibbling pikes, swan attacks and hungry eels. The range of swims is impressive too, from chlorinated swimming pools to drainage ditches, rock gullies to lonely lakes, private trout streams to murky canals. Some cold, some warm, some crystal clear, some downright disgusting. I’m not sure if I would have swum all of them but impressed that Joe did.

But tackle them he does and despite a set-back half way through (you’ll have to read it to find out) he ends the book at Roger’s beloved moat next to Walnut Tree Farm home in Suffolk. This is the end of a pilgrimage which takes us through an emotional journey as well as celebrating the joy of wild swimming. At the beginning of the book Joe sets out to copy Roger’s swims but by the last chapter he realises the experience of freedom is the real message. “There was no end, only beginnings and possibilities”.

Floating a life regained by Joe Minihane is published by Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN: 978-1-4683-1492-2