The Swimmer: The Wild Life of Roger Deakin

About this book

Roger Deakin is best known for his modern classic of nature writing Waterlog which frog-kicked the wild swimming movement into existence with wit politics and poetry. But he was not simply a dazzling writer and eccentric Englishman. He took his counterculture to the countryside in the 1970s and rebuilt a 16th century farmhouse from its oak beams up. He turned to self-sufficiency teaching and environmentalism. He became a music impresario and made films radio programmes and hundreds of friends from all classes - aristocrats poachers actors builders musicians tearaways from city and from town. He was a polymath an enthusiast an adventurer a romantic and rebel. Roger Deakin was unique and so too is this joyful work of creative biography told primarily in the words of the subject himself with support from a chorus of friends family colleagues lovers and neighbours. Delving deep into Roger Deakins library of words Patrick Barkham draws from notebooks diaries letters recordings published work and early drafts to conjure his voice back to glorious life in these pages. Patrick Barkhams biography follows Roger Deakins tree of life from roots to fruits revealing the inner life of an extraordinary man.