The Swimmer

The definitive biography of Roger Deakin, beloved author of the cult classic Waterlog.

Roger Deakin, author of the immortal Waterlog and Wildwood, was a man of many parts: maverick ad-man, cider-maker, teacher, environmentalist, music promoter, and filmmaker. But, above all, he was the restorer of ancient Walnut Tree Farm in Suffolk, the heartland where he wrote about all natural life — with rare attention, intimacy, precision, and poetry.

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, and lovers. Delving deep into Deakin's library of words, Patrick Barkham draws from notebooks, diaries, letters, and recordings to conjure his voice back to glorious life in these pages.