Interviews, swim-terviews, and books on swimming

There have been quite a few things going on in the press of late around The Last Wave, I'm pleased to report. All of them around swimming, too, which seems fitting given it's July!

Yesterday, the Guardian published my Top Ten Books on Swimming. Check it out if you're looking for your next great swimming read. "Swimming and reading have a lot in common: both are solitary pursuits, escapes into different worlds and different kinds of freedom. Some of the swimmers below are chasing bodily liberation in the water; others want to escape their dry-land lives or to recover lost memories."

I was interviewed for the Outdoor Swimming Society about my book and how swimming and writing related to one another in my life. Actually, it wasn't quite an interview - it was a swim-terview, which was brilliant. Ella Foote and I met at the Oasis pool in central London to have a chat and a swim. 

And finally, I was interviewed by Bristol 24/7 about the themes that are brought up in The Last Wave: dementia and cancer, as well as swimming, writing, and life in Bristol. Here's a little taste: Swimming is thinking time for me. With my cap, goggles and ear plugs, it gives me a chance to work out whatever’s on my mind. There’s a rhythm to swimming that I find really helpful if I get stuck in my writing. The rhythm of breathing and counting strokes puts you in an almost trance-like frame of mind.