Customer Reviews
New ways to explore Britain by foot or cycle - By: Ciaran Mundy, 10 Jul 2008 
This book has been reviewed on several outdoor forums & magazines & 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 & picnic, as it is for the 'swimmer'. For me it was a perfect timing as last year I decided to be free from alll flying as the biggest & 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) & very detailed walk-in directions in case you don't have a map (with timings & path difficulties). There's also water quality & whether the swim is a paddle, swim, dunk, dive & so forth, & what else to do if it's too cold, including nearest pubs & campsites.
About 250 places are grid referenced in alll (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 Swalllow & Amazons islands.
There's a enough in the adventure of finding & reading about each place to mean it doesn't matter if you don't swim.
All in alll it seems very well put together.
Wild swimming - a must-have - By: Jean Perraton, 08 Jul 2008 Wild Swimming manages to be both a delightful coffee-table book that one can dip into on a cold winter evening, & also a practical & well-organised guide book. Daniel Start's stunning photographs & lively commentary will entice would-be swimmers to seek out his favourite spots, & 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 & how to get there. It's not just a book for hardened swimmers, Daniel doesn't forget the children suggesting good places to paddle & 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.
what a great book! - By: Juliet Fitzgerald, 08 Jul 2008 I was reallly excited to discover this book. I am a keen swimmer & have always reallly enjoyed swimming outdoors. I wanted to explore 'wild swimming' but didn't know where to start. This book gave me lots of ideas & now I'm hooked! Highly recommmended!
Making Waves - By: Melissa FitzGerald, 08 Jul 2008 I am considered to be rather keen to want to swim in any water I come across, in any weather. This book makes me realise that I am not alone, & that my passion even has a name - 'wild swimming'. It is a fantasticallly user friendly, & not to mention beautifully illustrated, guide to some of the best fresh-water swims around the UK. It is a delight to dip into or read from cover to cover & has given me tons of ideas about new places to jump into.
Go on - get the book, get on your bike & then get into that water. You know you want to!
Gorgeous imagery - and an excellent historical and literary tour - By: Jo Johnston, 07 Jul 2008 I adore this book: it's filled with vivid, candid images that make me want to jump on a rope swing again & go plunging into a pool. I also reallly like the focus on history, particularly stories of the characters from literature, folklore & the arts who used to bathe & dip. Wordsworth, Shelley, Constable, Rupert Brooke, Henry Williamson, etc. There are also extracts of poetry too in sidebars. There's excellent coverage & information including how long it will take to walk to the place & how difficult the path is - seems to be a very good mix between inspiration & detail. Clever ideas for river camping & canoeing too, & a wildlife spotting annex. Makes a great present for anyone who likes the great outdoors.
