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Vintage Minis

Swimming

Vintage Minis bring you the world’s greatest writers on the experiences that make us human – from birth to death and everything in between

Erudite, funky and passionate, a total delight

Imagine our joy when Vintage announced that it is publishing a collection of easily digestible books from the world’s most celebrated writers on the experiences that make us human… They look good and read well. That’s win/win in our book.

Roger Deakin, who died in 2006, was a writer, filmmaker and environmentalist of international renown. He was a founder member of Friends of the Earth, and co-founded Common Ground. He lived for thirty-eight years in a moated farmhouse in Suffolk. Waterlog, which was first published in 1999, became a word-of-mouth bestseller, and is now an established classic of the nature writing canon.

Is there anything quite so exhilarating as swimming in wild water? This is a joyful swimming tour of Britain, a frog’s-eye view of the country’s best bathing holes – the rivers, rock pools, lakes, ponds, lochs and sea that define a watery island. Charming, funny, inspiring, an assertion of the native swimmer's right to roam, a celebration of the magic of water – this book will indeed make you want to strip off and leap in. 
 
Selected from the book Waterlog by Roger Deakin 
 
VINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS. 
 
A series of short books by the world’s greatest writers on the experiences that make us human 
 
Also in the Vintage Minis series: 
Eating by Nigella Lawson 
Liberty by Virginia Woolf 
Summer by Laurie Lee 
Desire by Haruki Murakami

Notes from Walnut Tree Farm

Calming, thought-provoking, poetic and honest, Notes from Walnut Tree Farm is a collection of writing and musing by documentary-maker, environmentalist and author of Waterlog, Roger Deakin. 
 
'Gentle, straight, honest, inquisitive, funny, melancholic' Spectator 
 
'A lovely book that is a poignant epitaph to a remarkable individual' Amazon Review 
________________ 
 
For the last six years of his life, Roger Deakin kept notebooks. In them, he wrote his daily thoughts, impressions, feelings and observations about and around his Suffolk home, Walnut Tree Farm. Collected here are the very best of these writings, capturing his extraordinary, restless curiosity about nature as well as his impressions of our changing world. 
 
Perfect for fans of Robert Macfarlane and Colin Tudge, this is a book that fills readers with a desire to explore the world around them. 
________________ 
 
'A secular saint' The Times 
 
'Marvellous, wonderful, lovely, remarkable . . . to be read and reread and treasured' Elizabeth Jane Howard, Daily Mail 
 
'Very funny, sharp-eyed. To look at the world through Deakin's eyes was to see somewhere that was more wonderful than it often appears' Sunday Telegraph 
 
'Thoughtful and invigorating, full of humour, timeless . . . will take its place among the classics of Nature diaries . . . to be read alongside Frances Kilvert, Gilbert White, and Dorothy Wordsworth' Mail on Sunday 
 
'So busy and bustling with life' Observer

A filmmaker and writer with a particular interest in nature and the environment, Roger Deakin was the author of the highly acclaimed Waterlog and Wildwood. He lived in Suffolk, and died there in August 2006, aged 63.

When Roger Deakin died in August 2006, his death was considered by many to be a great loss to literature. Notes From Walnut Tree Farm collects together the jottings, musings and observations with which he filled a series of notebooks for the last six years of his life. In this beautiful illustrated collection, descriptions of walks on Mellis Common and thoughts on the importance of nature sit side by side with memories of the past and musings about literature, while perfectly rendered observations of the tiny, missable visual details of everyday life are skilfully woven with a gentle, wise philosophy. 
 
Organised into twelve months of impressions, the notes reveal a passionate but gentle character and his extraordinary, restless curiosity. Capturing Deakin's unique turn of phrase and inspired use of language, and infused throughout with the magically meditative tranquillity of Walnut Tree Farm, this is a charming introduction to one of the most important of modern nature writers, or the perfect follow-up to Wildwood and Waterlog.

A Journey Through Trees

Wildwood

A powerful and yet intimate celebration of trees and all they mean to us

A much-loved classic of nature writing from environmentalist and the author of Waterlog, Roger Deakin, Wildwood is an exploration of the element wood in nature, our culture and our lives. 
 
'Breathtaking, vividly written . . . reading Wildwood is an elegiac experience' Sunday Times 
 
'He writes nature as a blackbird sings, or a bird of prey rides thermals - effortlessly.' Reader Review 
 ________________ 
 
From the walnut tree at his Suffolk home, he embarks upon a quest that takes him through Britain, across Europe, to Central Asia and Australia, in search of what lies behind man's profound and enduring connection with wood and trees. 
 
 Meeting woodlanders of all kinds, he lives in shacks and cabins, travels in search of the wild apple groves of Kazakhstan, goes coppicing in Suffolk, swims beneath the walnut trees of the Haut-Languedoc, and hunts bush plums with Aboriginal women in the outback. 
 
 Perfect for fans of Robert Macfarlane and Colin Tudge, Roger Deakin's unmatched exploration of our relationship with trees is autobiography, history, traveller's tale and incisive work in natural history. It will take you into the heart of the woods, where we go 'to grow, learn and change. 
 ________________ 
 
'Enthralling' Will Self, New Statesman 
 
 'Extraordinary . . . some of the finest naturalist writing for many years' Independent 
 
 'An excellent read - lyrical and literate and full of social and historical insights of all kinds' Colin Tudge, Financial Times 
 
 'Enchanting, very funny, every page carries a fascinating nugget. Should serve to make us appreciate more keenly all that we have here on earth . . . one of the greatest of all nature writers' Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday

With this book Roger Deakin can be counted one of the greatest of all nature writers. His beautiful book should serve to make us appreciate more keenly all that we have here on earth

A masterpiece which deserves to be read and reread

One of my favourite kind of books.  Few books make you change your habits; this one changed mine

Roger Deakin, who died in August 2006 shortly after completing the manuscript of Wildwood, was a writer and film maker with a particular interest in nature and the environment. He lived for many years in Suffolk, where he swam regularly in his moat, in the River Waveney and in the sea, in between travelling widely through the wildwood landscapes he writes about in this book. Waterlog, the predecessor to Wildwood, recounts his swimming adventures and has been hailed as a classic of nature writing.

Wildwood is a remarkable celebration of the transforming magic of trees, exploring the 'fifth element' of wood as it exists in nature, in our souls, in our culture and our lives. 
 
From the walnut tree at his Suffolk home, Roger Deakin embarks upon a quest that takes him through Britain, across Europe, to Central Asia and Australia, in search of what lies behind man's profound and enduring connection with wood and with trees. 
 
Meeting woodlanders of all kinds, he lives in shacks and cabins, travels in search of the wild apple groves of Kazakhstan, goes coppicing in Suffolk, swims beneath the walnut trees of the Haut-Languedoc, and hunts bushplums with Aboriginal women in the outback.

Roger Deakin

Olivia Laing

I jumped in with both feet and wanted to stay for more.

A delicious, cleansing, funny, wise and joyful book, so wonderfully full of energy and life. I loved it

Highly entertaining...Waterlog is a book about a cold, wet subject written with a warmth and passion it surely deserves, but has rarely had before

A wonderful and romantic tale told by a true English eccentric...think Ratty, think Mole, think three men falling out of a boat...enchanting

A travel book like no other, it is rich and deep with insights on modern Britain

Deakin has written an aquatic Songlines.

Roger Deakin is the perfect companion for invigorating armchair swim. Engaging, thoughtful and candid, he also has a wonderful eye

A brilliant and compelling view of Britain from a few inches above its neglected waterways

Waterlog celebrates the magic of water and the beauty of wild Britain. 
 
In 1996 Roger Deakin set out to swim the British Isles. He swam in the sea, in rivers, in streams, tarns, lakes, lochs, ponds, lidos, swimming pools, fens, dykes, moats, aqueducts, waterfalls, flooded quarries and even canals. This funny, wise, delightful book documents his journey. It inspired a movement, creating wild swimmers out of many readers. 
 
Detained by water bailiffs in Winchester, intercepted in the Fowey estuary by coastguards, mistaken for a suicide on Camber sands, confronting the Corryvreckan whirlpool in the Hebrides, Deakin discovered just how much of an outsider the native swimmer is to his landlocked, fully-dressed fellow citizens. 
 
Waterlog is a personal journey, a bold assertion of the native swimmer's right to roam, and an unforgettable celebration of the magic of water. 
 
INTRODUCED BY OLIVIA LAING 
 
'A delicious, cleansing, funny, wise and joyful book, so wonderfully full of energy and life’ Jane Gardam' 
 
'Roger Deakin is the perfect companion for an invigorating armchair swim' Daily Telegraph

Roger Deakin

Praise for Waterlog

I jumped in with both feet and wanted to stay for more.

Erudite, funky and passionate, a total delight

Charmingly and elegantly written

I jumped in with both feet and wanted to stay for more.

Erudite, funky and passionate, a total delight

Charmingly and elegantly written

I jumped in with both feet and wanted to stay for more.

Erudite, funky and passionate, a total delight

Charmingly and elegantly written

Books by Roger Deakin

Articles featuring Roger Deakin

The Penguin books that challenged our view of the environment

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