RD/WLOG/1/13 - Swimming & 'Waterlog', general notes, letters, misc.

RD/WLOG/1/13

File

Swimming & 'Waterlog', general notes, letters, misc.

1997

60 items in 1 ring-binder

Includes notes on the disappearance of the Suffolk coast; typed ms on swimming, the weightlessness of swimming and cycling, and the freedom from constraint; contact for eel basket makers, eel catchers, and other Ely based contacts; photocopied maps of Stiffkey and Blakeney in Norfolk, and Iona; notes on Andy Goldsworthy and a BBC 2 production concerning rivers; Environment Agency article on hormone disruption in wildlife; notes on personal swimming experiences of Rachel Moynihan in the Wirral and the health benefits of swimming; notes from RD’s interviews with folk from Dungeness; notes on access to rivers and riversides and mentions David Beskine (the Ramblers’ access campaigner); ms notes by RD on his early plans for “Swimmingly” ['Waterlog'] and his plans to swim all over the UK; ms notes mentioning “mythic maps” and “maps of paradise” and wild swimming; literature on alternative therapies; annual Channel review; an article on sea bathing by Louis Appleby; article by Robert Burton for 'British Wildlife', “Through a Naturalist’s Eyes”; an article on Somerset’s silt flats; a poem by Arthur McHugh on distance swimming; a letter from Ken Worpole; letters in response to RD’s article for the Guardian “The Pool of Life”; details of the Amateur Swimming Association’s first national conference (1997 : Sheffield); South London Swimming Club membership details; River Waveney regeneration project; and general correspondence and articles on swimming and pools.

Includes RD’s initial thoughts on 'Waterlog', as written in a note to ‘Nick’ –

“I concluded that the best plan would be the simplest … taking basic camping kit, some old plimsolls or plastic sandals, a bar or two of chocolate, thermos and hip flask … being single-mindedly amphibian myself, I would hope to bring out the amphibian in the people I meet along the way … I would like to write (as I naturally do anyway) discursively. DeQuincy and Thoreau come to mind, as well as Cobbett … This is swimming for pleasure, or out of curiosity … Turning into a swimmer is one way of being a chameleon observer of our native land and people. Like the wart in the Once and Future King, I will turn into a fish, or an otter in Clacton, Bognor Regis, amongst the beach huts of Southwold or Walberswick, or in a Highland river pool amongst salmon, or in seaweedy Kimmeridge Bay, nudged by languid mullet”.

[Contained in one ring-binder].