Product Description

New from the publishers of the Cool Camping series, Wild Swimming is the original handbook to the freshwater swimming holes of Britain. Combining inspirational photography, engaging writing and practical information this authoritative and beautiful book will guide you to 230 magical river, lake and waterfall locations throughout Britain - perfect for a swim, paddle or waterside picnic.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3751 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-21
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

National Trust Magazine, Summer 2008
"A book of wonderful things to do in Britain's rivers, lakes and waterfalls, including swimming with otters, discovering underground caves and even searching for gold"

Sunday Times Magazine, 4th May 2008
"The first guidebook to Britain's freshwater swimming holes"

The Daily Telegraph, 16th June 2008
"Excellent...This is an essential guide for anyone planning a dreamy summer of camping, picnics and swimming."

Customer Reviews

Wild Swimming
There are very many things that I love about this book. So far I've had it a very short time and have already had an incredibly therapeutic swim, about 10 miles from where I have lived for over 20 years, which I had no idea was there. It was the most beautiful spot and the pub recommended in the book was such a find, being friendly, serving good beer and food, having a gorgeous wildflower garden and being over a thousand years old.

Having this book means I am much more likely to get out and swim in beautiful places, and not just paddle, worried about currents, debris and pond weed. So all those good intentions are finally coming good and I can entice friends along too. It's definitely going to be the basis of many UK holidays to come.

I'm also impressed that the directions are so concise yet so clear and straightforward to follow - rare for a guide book.

I can't recommend this book enough.

New ways to explore Britain by foot or cycle
This book has been reviewed on several outdoor forums and magazines and works well as a nice blend of clear reliable guidebook plus photo travelogue. It's aimed as much at the walker or family looking for an unusual summer outing and picnic, as it is for the 'swimmer'. For me it was a perfect timing as last year I decided to be free from all flying as the biggest and easiest way to reduce my carbon emissions.

The swim boxes are particularly useful as they contain 8 point grid references (good for walkers), postcodes (good for drivers) and very detailed walk-in directions in case you don't have a map (with timings and path difficulties). There's also water quality and whether the swim is a paddle, swim, dunk, dive and so forth, and what else to do if it's too cold, including nearest pubs and campsites.

About 250 places are grid referenced in all (150 with full box panels). There's coverage of interesting places like ancient baptism pools, river tubing canyons, clear chalk streams, places to find otters, catch crayfish, slide down rock pools or find famous locations like the Swallow and Amazons islands.

There's a enough in the adventure of finding and reading about each place to mean it doesn't matter if you don't swim.

All in all it seems very well put together.

Wild swimming - a must-have
Wild Swimming manages to be both a delightful coffee-table book that one can dip into on a cold winter evening, and also a practical and well-organised guide book. Daniel Start's stunning photographs and lively commentary will entice would-be swimmers to seek out his favourite spots, and the systematic information will enable them to find them. The book lists the key details for each site including the map reference, post code, water quality, a brief description of type of swim and how to get there. It's not just a book for hardened swimmers, Daniel doesn't forget the children suggesting good places to paddle and some innovative ideas for fun on the banks. It's a book for anyone who enjoys wild swimming - or who would like to try it.