The Swimmer: The Wild Life of Roger Deakin

The definitive biography of beloved author, Roger DeakinRoger Deakin is best known for his modern classic of nature writing, Waterlog, which frog-kicked the wild swimming movement into existence with wit, politics and poetry. But he was not simply a dazzling writer and eccentric Englishman. He took his counterculture to the countryside in the 1970s and rebuilt a 16th century farmhouse from its oak beams up.

He turned to self-sufficiency, teaching and environmentalism. He became a music impresario and made films, radio programmes and hundreds of friends from all classes - aristocrats, poachers, actors, builders, musicians, tearaways, from city and from town. He was a polymath, an enthusiast, an adventurer, a romantic and rebel.

Patrick Barkham's biography follows Roger Deakin's tree of life, from roots to fruits, revealing the inner life of an extraordinary man.