Special
Lazy days
BOOKS › TV › RADIO › FILM › LETTERS › PUZZLES
DIVE INTO THE WORLD OF WILD SWIMMING
Immerse yourself in wild-swimming lore with this comprehensive handbook
BOOK
THE OUTDOORS WIMMERS’ HANDBOOK
BY KATE REW, RIDER BOOKS, £22 (HB)
Outdoor swimming is an activity of possibilities. Tryitonce,andyou’ll start noticing water everywhere. You’ll also start asking questions: “Can I swim there ? ” , “Will I be cold? ”, “What’s a tarn?” To answer them, you will need a handbook. Plenty has been written about outdoor swimming but
The Outdoor Swimmers’ Handbook by Kate Rew is the most comprehensive volume I’ve read. It provides all the basic advice but goes much further with fascinating information on related topics I hadn’t previously considered.
This is a reflection on the author’s life of submersion, both in the topic and in the water itself. At its heart is a deep love of what it means to appreciate nature in this all-encompassing way.
In my experience, there are two types of outdoor-swimming book. A keen outdoor swimmer myself, I have enjoyed and appreciated both. Near-evangelistic testaments extol the mental and physical virtues of wild swimming, while more practical guides offer location suggestions and down-to-earth advice.
Kate’s handbook is packed full of calm enthusiasm, and includes the most detailed guidance I’ve seen, but steers clear of suggesting specific locations.
If you’re looking for a book that tells you exactly where to swim, this isn’t it. But if you’re interested in understanding, exploring and finding your own watery adventures, this is one you might like to read. Let the adventures begin!
BOOK
LIFE BETWEEN THE TIDES
BY ADAM NICOLSON, WILLIAM COLLINS, £9.99 (PB)
Who can resist the allure of rockpools? These ephemeral “half-worlds”, in Adam Nicolson’s brilliant phrase, bring out the wide-eyed child in all of us. They are places “where you can look beyond your own reflection and find the marvellous an inch beneath your nose”.
Strangely, however, rockpools have, until now, been the preserve of children’s books and seashore field guides, their magic largely ignored by nature writers.
Life Between the Tides, the paperback incarnation of The Sea Is Not Made of
Water, which made quite a splash in 2021, changes all that. It is a hymn to the shore –a wonderfully absorbing natural and cultural history of the intertidal zone.
Several chapters explore the lives of coastal creatures, from sandhoppers to anemones (below). Others focus on tides, geology, seaweeds and how life by the ocean has shaped us. Nicolson darts from Gaelic songs to Shakespeare,
Mesolithic foragers, Greek philosophy and the love affair between Victorian Britain and the edges of the sea. He makes three new rockpools on a remote Scottish shore – “gardening the sea”, he says – then maps their inhabitants’ comings and goings in loving detail.
Our coasts emerge as battlefields.
They are held in a kind of creative tension by competition between species, including humans. If even one critical species disappears – limpets, for instance – the balance is upset and the damage can take decades to repair.
A sobering thought.
BOOK
MUDLARK’D: HIDDEN HISTORIES FROM THE RIVER THAMES
BY MALCOLM RUSSELL THAMES AND HUDSON, £25 (PB)
Liberal MP and trade unionist John Burns described the Thames as “liquid history”, and Malcolm Russell’s Mudlark’d is soaked with it. Taking 27 artefacts he and other mudlarkers have unearthed on the banks of the Thames, Russell uses these objects as jumping-off points to explore a series of fascinating stories connected to the river’s complex past.
This is more of a whistlestop history than a deep-dive, with each vignette brief but offering clear insight into the historical episodes. Russell flits between time periods with ease, from an ancient hair pin that reveals the lives of enslaved hairdressers in Roman London to a bottleneck that illuminates the gin craze that swept the city in the Georgian era. He also highlights “hidden histories”, sensitively covering stories that are often missing from the historical record. For instance, through lead tokens, we are transported to the underground “molly-houses” of 18th-century London, where gay men could meet away from prying eyes.
The book is lavishly illustrated, bristling with historical prints, paintings and frescos that bring the past to life.
And contemporary photographs capture the thrill of mudlarking, documenting over 300 objects plucked from the Thames’ muddy foreshore.
It finishes with a short, practical introduction to mudlarking –a tantalising primer for readers who may want to search for their own historical treasures after reading this compelling book.
MUSIC
LISTENING LANDSCAPES
RIVER DERWENT WITH DAN DAVIES
In 2021, artist, musician and teacher Dan Davies listened closely to the beating heart of the River Derwent and its tributaries in Derbyshire, and entwined the riverine sounds of nature with his musical response. The result is part of the ongoing Listening Landscapes project, in partnership with Derbyshire Wildlife Trusts.
Davies took underwater and stereo field recordings at various sites, including Padley Gorge, the River Wye and Highlow Brook, and in a creative response to these waterways, reworked the sounds into a series of mesmerising audio compositions.
Listen to the four tracks here: listeninglandscapes.bandcamp.com/releases
Q&A
ENTWINED WITH THE TWEED
Angler and former Tweed Commissioner Andrew Douglas-Home tells the story of his close relationship with the waters of the Tweed in his book A River Runs Through Me. We ask him about his life spent by the river
What is your earliest memory of fishing on the River Tweed?
On 26 and 27 April 1960 –I was just nine years old. I caught my first salmon on the 26th in the Weil Stream on the Birgham Dub beat, fishing from a boat, rowed by one of those many legendary Tweed boatmen (was it Mr Coxon or Mr Struther?). It was a 6lb salmon and it rose at my fly but didn’t take it; the boatman put on a smaller fly and we tried again, this time it took it and was duly netted by Mr Coxon/Struther. The next day I caught my second, 8lbs this time, in the Long stream at Carham with the wonderful boatman Tom Douglas rowing me. Almost exactly 62 years later, I can still remember both quite distinctly.
You live on the banks of the Tweed; how has the experience of living on its banks changed in the last 20 years?
I suppose we have more walkers now, which is a good thing, even if nothing is quite as quiet and secluded as it once was .The numbers of salmon in the river have definitely reduced; whereas we used to average 500–600 salmon caught here at the Lees every year, now it is around 300 – half what it was. Twenty years ago, most anglers would kill one or two, now release rates for salmon caught are over 90%.
“There is nothing quite like the magnetic pull of trying to catch the king of fish, Atlantic salmon”
What was the most challenging issue you faced in your role as a Tweed Commissioner?
I was chief commissioner from 2004–2012, and despite the catches then being two or three times what they are now, the biggest challenge was in keeping all the various river interests – owners, anglers, ghillies/ boatmen/ hoteliers/ angling shops etc – happy. Ironically, we called a public meeting of all stakeholders in August 2010 so that all grievances and concerns could be aired publicly, the main one being perceived lack of salmon to catch. By the end of November that year, the Tweed rods had caught 23,219 salmon, probably more than any Atlantic salmon river had ever caught before. The Tweed now catches about 7,000 salmon a year.
Which fish do you enjoy catching – and perhaps eating – the most?
Whereas dry fly fishing for brown trout is more skilful, there is nothing quite like the magnetic pull of trying to catch the king of fish, the Atlantic salmon. Its epic life journey, from Scotland to Greenland and back, its sheer beauty, its incredible power and fighting qualities, and the fact that you are trying to catch it with a fly when they eat nothing after entering freshwater – all these things just add to the mystery and allure. I do like eating salmon in moderation, but as nobody kills wild salmon anymore because they’re so scarce, and as farmed salmon has extremely doubtful environmental credentials, salmon is seldom on my menu.
What needs to be done to safeguard the future of salmon in the Tweed?
Nobody knows how many salmon are now returning every year to Scotland, but realistic estimates have them at 250,000; 40 years ago there were 1.5 million. In the North Atlantic, the decline is estimated to have gone from 10 million 40 years ago, down to 1.5 million now. Most of the decline is probably down to factors in the sea – changing temperatures, ocean currents moving, salmon’s prey species moving etc – which we can do little about in the short term. What we can do is make the river as ‘fish friendly’ and safe for salmon as possible, so that we maximise survival before the young salmon set off on their journey to sea. That means countering the effects of global warming, riparian tree planting to lower temperatures and provide shade, water security in terms of quality and amount (reducing abstractions). Salmon is a cold-water fish –a real challenge as temperatures rise.
A River Runs Through Me: A Life of Salmon Fishing in Scotland by Andrew Douglas-Home is published by Elliott & Thompson, £14.99 (HB)
FROM THE BBC…
RADIO
THE FROZEN RIVER
THE ESSAY, BBC RADIO 3
Described as a pilgrimage to loss and being lost, The Frozen River weaves a tale of misread signs, missing maps and warped realities. Over five 14-minute episodes, stunning soundscapes tell the story behind the creation of experimental film Upstream, directed by Rob Petit.
Billed as a “dream-flight into wildness and winter”, Upstream is a cinematic journey following the course of Scotland’s River Dee from its Braemar floodplains to its source on the Cairngorm Plateau – the highest source of any British river. Filmed entirely from the air, it took three years and six challenging expeditions to complete, and weaves music, images and words to mesmerising effect. Author of The Lost Words Robert Macfarlane wrote a prose-poem for the film, while the music is by experimental composer Hauschka.
The Frozen River was written by Petit, adapted from his expedition diaries, and blends together haunting location sound as well as music and extracts of Macfarlane’s text from Upstream. This is compelling and haunting storytelling. bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000qxww
ON IPLAYER
BARRA ON THE FOYLE
BBC NORTHERN IRELAND
In this 11-episode series, BBC Northern Ireland weather presenter Barra Best journeys across the 4,000 square kilometres of the Foyle network, exploring the many rivers and streams that make up its great catchment, from the foothills of the Sperrin Mountains on its way to the Atlantic Ocean. Along the way he meets with people who work, live and play along its banks, brought to life with some stunning aerial footage.
In episode seven, Barra visits the city of Derry, a stop-off port on the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race. He meets craftsmen keeping alive the tradition of making beautiful wooden Lough Foyle punts. In episode nine, Barra is near Cookstown exploring Davagh Water as it flows through Davagh Forest, and visits the 4,000-year-old Beaghmore Stone Circles. bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001591f/barra-on-the-foyleseries-1-shorts-episode-11
FROM THE BBC ARCHIVES
As the BBC celebrates its centenary this year, programmes from its archives are being made available once more. The BBC Programme Index is a searchable database brimming with countryside and wildlife content, and in this list of 14 programmes specially selected for our issue on rivers, you can explore delightful coverage from recent years.
Start with Cornwall’s Red River, a lyrical programme presented by Cornish poet John Wedgwood Clarke (pictured right), which recently screened on BBC Four. Clarke explores the history of the Red River in Cornwall, a small watercourse that, until the 1980s, was heavily polluted by the red-coloured iron compounds that were the by-product of tin mining. Entwined with extracts from John’s poem, ‘Red River at the A30 Culvert’, John meets people connected with the stream’s industrial past, as well as those who are protecting it today.
Explore the wildlife of the River Wye with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall in Hugh’s Wild West, first aired in 2018. In episode one, Hugh becomes captivated by the UK’s only aquatic songbird, the dipper, and gets an insight into its extraordinary underwater agility. While in episode nine, Hugh fulfils his childhood ambition of swimming with barbel in the waters of the Wye.
Other programmes include Ellie Harrison exploring spectacular chalk stream the River Ebble in a 2021 episode of Countryfile, canoeing on the River Teifi with Chris Packham and Megan McCubbin in 2021’s Chris and Meg’s Wild Summer, and travelling the length of the River Ythan in a 2019 episode of BBC Radio Scotland’s Scotland Outdoors.
For the full list, go to bit.ly/3iyNZjQ or scan this QR code.
