A journal of west country waters
by LYNNE ROPER
edited by Tanya Shadrick
Amazon | Waterstones | Bookshop.org
Set on Dartmoor and the Devon coasts, the book records the adventures of visionary wild swimmer and west country NHS paramedic, the late Lynne Roper. For five years, between surviving breast cancer and dying of a brain tumour in 2016, Lynne took daily swims in tors, ponds, rivers and reservoirs (sometimes in boisterous company; often alone, in quiet communion with nature).
‘Beautiful, ballsy, invigorating. Anyone who thinks Roger Deakin was wild will need to recalibrate’
Kate Rew, Outdoor Swimming Society
‘This is a tangible book as alive as weather…’
Jenny Landreth, Caught by the River
Longlisted in 2019 for the prestigious Wainwright Prize for UK nature and travel writing, and recommended by the Outdoor Swimming Society, the book has an extraordinary backstory. Selkie Press founder Tanya Shadrick met Lynne Roper only once in the month before her death: a former hospice scribe and writer of the outside, Tanya recognised the power of her fellow west country woman’s writing about the natural world (and the close-knit communities that form when people gather together in our countryside) and committed to editing her work. This book is the result.
Lynne’s story inspires those who encounter it to seek for themselves the wild and free: it is a book for wild swimmers, walkers and nature lovers alike.
selkiepress.com 