The Swimmer: The Wild Life of Roger Deakin

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The Swimmer is a new book on the writer Roger Deakin; a well known character and formative influence on wild swimming and nature writing. It charts Deakin's life from school days, all the way to his untimely death at the age of 63. Norfolk Wildlife Trust was Britain's first Wildlife Trust, launched in 1926 with the acquisition of Cley Marshes. It has 60-plus nature reserves, more than 36,000 members and 1,200 active volunteers. My dad could name every species of bird and every plant, he seemed to be a wildlife superman, but he didn’t have superpowers with butterflies. We learned about them together.”

A long-awaited biography of the late, great writer, environmentalist and moat-dipper [...] This is a mightily accomplished biography [...] a skilful piece of theatre" In the beginning, I assumed that not having met Roger would bequeath me a crisp, neutral gaze. Later, I craved five minutes in his company. His education taught him how to reason but he chose to live as a romantic – by following his feelings. I wanted to feel that innate sympathy that comes from sharing a space with another living being. At least Roger and I shared the same sky: we loved the same woods, winds and moods. I discovered that he had moved his mum into a cottage in the Suffolk town of Eye in the 1990s, just when my dad moved to another cottage 50 yards away. Roger and I were regular visitors to our parents. Surely we both stood in the queue in Eye greengrocers one Saturday morning. Let’s create more,” he said. “We are not going to take prime farmland. With regenerative farming you can have a good business and care about the land. But there is something particularly striking about Roger’s questing generation. This generation suffered the misfortune to be born during the chronic anxiety of the Second World War, but Roger’s cohort, or at least its white male members, may be the most fortunate generation ever. Their free-roaming childhoods unfolded as the economy boomed, they missed national service and came of age when sex was invented, between the Lady Chatterley trial and the Beatles’ first EP. Roger and his peers enjoyed great gifts – a welfare state, social mobility, plentiful jobs, affordable property, accessible global travel – but they struggled, too. In hindsight, the 60s’ social, cultural and psychological revolution seems inevitable but social transformation has to be fought for. He embraced new styles of thinking, feeling and living. If you're coming to Coles by car, why not take advantage of the 2 hours free parking at Sainsbury's Pioneer Square - just follow the signs for Pioneer Square as you drive into Bicester and park in the multi-storey car park above the supermarket. Come down the travelators, exit Sainsbury's, turn right and follow the pedestrianised walkway to Crown Walk and turn right - and Coles will be right in front of you. You don't need to shop in Sainsbury's to get the free parking! Where to Find UsBiographer-subject is a strange relationship. Close study of anyone’s life provides useful lessons. I found several in Roger’s life: I’m inspired by his bravery, how he spoke up for the ordinary nature found in all our neighbourhoods, the importance he placed on respectful relations with all animals and plants, and his insistence on doing things for himself; I take careful heed of his struggle to compromise and his sometimes reprehensible behaviour towards his partners. For all the different Rogers I discovered– in the memories of his friends, in recordings of his mellifluous voice, in the farm he inhabited so originally, and in my subconscious – the closest I came to him was when I opened his notebooks. ACT 13: The Author. An audience of thousands who have read the book and want to applaud. Roger loved it. All the attention that came with the publicity. Radio programmes, interviews, fan mail, giving talks and making new girlfriends. Richard Mabey is there, and very appreciative of Roger’s writing. “I may have done some innovative things, but I’ve never, ever achieved the lightness of touch and intimacy of prose, which I think at its best, is a wonder.” Robert Macfarlane, too. He and Roger became close in 2003, going on trips together while Robert was writing The Wild Places and Roger was making plans for Wildwood. What we have to decide is whether life is a little, cautious, grasping affair, or whether it is wonderful’. There is a picture in The Swimmer of Roger as a toddler sitting in a pram staring at some pigeons. He is frowning with the intensity of it and a line of adult men stand behind admiringly. Roger Deakin (11 Februar 1943 – 19 August 2006)​ gilt als einer der Begründer des Wild Swimming in Großbritannien, dem Schwimmen in offenen Gewässern wie Seen und Flüssen, aber auch kleinen Teichen oder Bächen. Sein Buch "Waterlog", die Beschreibung ​wie er Großbritannien in den unterschiedlichsten Wasserwegen durchquert, gilt als eines der wichtigsten Bücher zu diesem Thema.

It is working to rebuild fragmented ecological networks across the county and runs projects to connect children with the natural world. Like many readers, I imagined he would be a dream dinner party guest but, in the end, I never met him – he died, suddenly, aged just 63, in 2006. For years, I enjoyed his writing but also pondered the distinctiveness of his generation and its value – my parents were the same age and, like Roger, had moved at the end of the 60s to seek a new kind of life in the East Anglian countryside. Here, on the edge of Mellis Common, near Diss, he stripped bare and rebuilt a house, and a community. In the early days he worked in London and returned at weekends to tear down walls, patch up beams, cooking and sleeping outside with groups of friends.Another prominent farming family, that of Ball, is erroneously said to be that of George Washington's mother, Mary Ball Washington. They lived in the parish from the late 15th to the mid-17th century, but William Ball, the man once thought to have emigrated to Virginia and become Mary's great grandfather, actually died in London and his family lived in the East Berkshire area for at least two more generations. [3 ]