Waterlog

"Being in water is less a pleasure… than the resumption of a natural condition"

"You see and experience things… in a way that is completely different from any other. You are in nature, part and parcel of it, in a far more complete and intense way than on dry land, and your sense of the present is overwhelming"

"Most of us live in a world where more and more places and things are signposted, labelled, and officially 'interpreted'… It is the reason why walking, cycling and swimming will always be subversive activities. They allow us to regain a sense of what is old and wild in these islands, by getting off the beaten track and breaking free of the official version of things"

For these, and many other reasons, I'm really enjoying Roger Deakin's Waterlog. Like Bill Bryson, he needs a better editor, but has moments of real brilliance. After a bike ride along the swollen Thames and its flooded water-meadows (and football pitches), I dived straight back into this appropriate reading material - just as soon as I'd dried my socks.