Overview

The definitive biography of Roger Deakin, beloved author of cult classic Waterlog 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 Deakin's 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 Barkham's biography follows Roger Deakin's tree of life, from roots to fruits, revealing the inner life of an extraordinary man.

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9780241471470

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Reviews

Barkham conjures the life of the wild swimming champion and author of Waterlog in a bravura act of creative memoir -- Alex Preston * Observer * [A] remarkable book . . . The Swimmer is an unconventional biography of an unconventional person . . . A tapestry-like life of the influential nature writer -- Amy-Jane Beer * Guardian * Reading Patrick Barkham's brilliant biography of this fascinating man, I felt both that I was meeting again the Roger Deakin I knew - and also encountering a Roger I never met . . . The narrative form Patrick has chosen allows Roger's own voice to sing through and with Patrick's - and also introduces us to a chorus of voices, memories and perspectives of those who knew Roger over the course of his wild and various life * Robert Macfarlane * Roger Deakin can be counted as one of the greatest of all Nature writers. He has a fine eye, and an acute ear for things the rest of us have grown too blasé to hear -- Craig Brown * Mail on Sunday * Deakin's book's are full of unexpected treasures and destined to be discovered anew by generations to come * Sunday Telegraph * Deakin's greatest gift - indeed, his legacy - is to make the ecologically minded life a matter of gleeful fun -- Olivia Laing * Observer * In just a few words, Deakin can delight and inspire in equal measure -- Tom Hodgkinson

Deakin's greatest gift - indeed, his legacy - is to make the ecologically minded life a matter of gleeful fun -- Olivia Laing * Observer * In just a few words, Deakin can delight and inspire in equal measure -- Tom Hodgkinson Roger Deakin can be counted as one of the greatest of all Nature writers. He has a fine eye, and an acute ear for things the rest of us have grown too blase to hear -- Craig Brown * Mail on Sunday * Deakin's book's are full of unexpected treasures and destined to be discovered anew by generations to come * Sunday Telegraph *

As much a biography of a generation as of an individual . . . Barkham conjures the life of the wild swimming champion and author of Waterlog in a bravura act of creative memoir . . . a rich, strange and compelling work of creative memoir that beautifully honours and elevates the life and work of its subject -- Alex Preston * Observer * [A] remarkable book, an extraordinary insight . . . The Swimmer is an unconventional biography of an unconventional person . . . A tapestry-like life of the influential nature writer -- Amy-Jane Beer * Guardian * Barkham honours Deakin’s protean nature by collaging together often wildly contradictory testimonies from friends, colleagues and lovers. It manages, as few biographies do, to convey how impossible a person is to pin down, perhaps especially once as mercurial as Deakin * New Statesman, 'Books of the Year' * Barkham's book succeeds in evoking a fascinating, creative, complicated man * Times Literary Supplement * Reading Patrick Barkham's brilliant biography of this fascinating man, I felt both that I was meeting again the Roger Deakin I knew - and also encountering a Roger I never met . . . The narrative form Patrick has chosen allows Roger's own voice to sing through and with Patrick's - and also introduces us to a chorus of voices, memories and perspectives of those who knew Roger over the course of his wild and various life * Robert Macfarlane * The Swimmer is biography at its most inventive, mixing Deakin’s own writings with friends’ memories and improvisational add-ons to celebrate a bold and surprising life -- Blake Morrison * Observer * Vivid . . . a magical kind of post-mortem autobiography . . . The Swimmer is a wonderful testament to a unique and very charming man * Daily Mail * Deakin has become the unofficial patron saint of wild swimmers . . . Barkham mines Deakin's notebooks and interviews his family, friends and lovers to create this beautifully immersive biography * Financial Times, 'What to Read this Summer' * Deakin was an extraordinary man in an extraordinary moment * Times * A long-awaited biography of the late, great writer, environmentalist and moat-dipper . . . This is a mightily accomplished biography . . . a skilful piece of theatre' -- Sue Brooks * Caught by the River *

Deakin's greatest gift - indeed, his legacy - is to make the ecologically minded life a matter of gleeful fun -- Olivia Laing * Observer * In just a few words, Deakin can delight and inspire in equal measure -- Tom Hodgkinson Roger Deakin can be counted as one of the greatest of all Nature writers. He has a fine eye, and an acute ear for things the rest of us have grown too blasé to hear -- Craig Brown * Mail on Sunday * Deakin's book's are full of unexpected treasures and destined to be discovered anew by generations to come * Sunday Telegraph *

Author Information

Patrick Barkham is an award-winning author and natural history writer for the Guardian. His books include The Butterfly Isles, Badgerlands, Islander and Wild Child. He is President of Norfolk Wildlife Trust and lives in Norfolk with his family.

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