Waterlog by Roger Deakin

This is an account of Roger's journey around Britain swimming in the sea, rivers, lakes and lidos.

One of the things I especially like about Roger is that although he was a lifelong green campaigner he was not one of those conservationists who want to conserve nature by keeping the hoi polloi out of it. Some of my favourite parts are Roger's arguments with gamekeepers, fishery owners, the Environment Agency and several others. I like to see him being a querolous old git.

In some ways, this is a book in which nothing much happens. None of the swims Roger undertakes are particularly extreme - he doesn't cross the channel, for instance. He considers swimming across the coryvreckan whirlpool and then sensibly reconsiders. I think this kind of adds to its charm though; there's nothing here that you couldn't manage yourself if you found the correct location.

Inspired by this, I have been enjoying the sea, a waterfall plunge pool and my local outdoor pool this summer and only caught one horrific poo disease while doing it.