Swimming the Seasons – A Freshwater Almanac

In Swimming the Seasons: A Freshwater Almanac, poet and nature writer Polly Atkin follows the turning year through the rivers, lakes and tarns of the English Lake District.

Drawing on eight years of outdoor swimming, she explores the relationship between a person and a place, and between the landscape she calls home and her disabled body. This lyrical account celebrates attention, persistence and the pleasure of swimming in every season, while noticing the birds, plants and people whose lives unfold alongside our own.

A freshwater almanac about living with pain, finding joy in the everyday and discovering the extraordinary in familiar waters.