This quiet rural shingle beach is an island of transquility along the built up conurbationof the South Coast. Britain’s rivers, lakes and waterfalls are cleaner, safer and more accessible than at any time in living memory and the health benefits of a natural dip are increasingly well known. The author was a notable environmentalist (he was a founding member of Friends of the Earth) and this is apparent throughout the book. If you want to get started you need very little beyond some trunks, a small travel towel (or sarong), and ideally some lightweight aqua shoes (old trainers work fine). This is a huge collection of small tipsto make a real difference to your outdoor swimming, whether you’re planning your first Winter Swims, hoping to enjoy some icy swims the depths of the Scottish winter – this book will take you through everything you need to know.

Occasionally nostalgic but brimming with fantastic descriptions and zeal, Waterlog explores swimming in lakes, canals, rivers and seas around the UK. There is a rope to help you down to the beach, the sand is made from fine pearl quartz beads and the water is clear, almost luminescent. Firmly placed in the genre of swimming against adversity, this book tells how swimming off the coast of Ireland helped Ruth Fitzmaurice deal with the illness of her husband, who had been diagnosed with motor neurone disease. She joined a swimming group and found in the chilled waters of the North Sea as well as around the hills and islands of the Orkneys what she needed to truly recover.This book added a new dimension to our Annecy holiday; the locations were accurately described and inspired us off the beaten track and into some beautiful water. They’ve swum all their lives and have completed some incredibly long, teeth-chattering-cold, extreme swims. In Swim Wild Jack, Robbie and Calum Hudson share their experience of preparing and tackling their 145km swim along the River Eden and their record breaking Arctic swim.

He gives us direction and clues to develop the observational skills required to identify key signs in a variety of bodies of water.

Artist and illustrator Lisa Congdon brings together her passion for images and swimming in this delightful book. But Swimming In The Sink moves beyond her achievements and looks at how, after life altering bereavement and illness, she worked to come back to swimming and back to life. Over two miles of meadows and swimming from Sheep’s Green down to the Orchard Tea Gardens in Grantchester.

This revised and expanded edition of Wild Swimming features the same winning formula of stunning photography, engaging travel writing and practical guidance.Wild Swimming France takes you on an aquatic voyage to the wild side of the world’s favourite holiday destination and introduce you to parts of France you never knew existed. Today there is something slightly naughty, a little bit adventurous and wonderfully invigorating about wild swimming. Imagine a summertime tour through the wildest and most beautiful regions of Britain - boating, camping and swimming along the way. We love outdoor swimming but for the times when you can’t get to the water why not immerse yourself in a bit of reading? A very deep, green–blue rectangular pool in a great quarry amphitheatre entered by a spooky railway tunnel.