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Downstream: A History and Celebration of Swimming the River Thames
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Stretching 215 miles from its source in Gloucestershire, through England's capital and across to the North Sea, the River Thames has always enticed swimmers.
From bathing kings to splashing school children, intrepid wild swimmers to international athletes, this famous river has long been a favourite. But it was the Victorian era that saw the birth of organised river racing ...more
From bathing kings to splashing school children, intrepid wild swimmers to international athletes, this famous river has long been a favourite. But it was the Victorian era that saw the birth of organised river racing ...more
Hardcover, 400 pages
Published
June 15th 2015
by Aurum Press
(first published March 15th 2015)
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Start your review of Downstream: A History and Celebration of Swimming the River Thames

I had been feeling the tug to take a spell in non-fiction but I was waiting for reserves to arrive at the library. I found this book while perusing the shelves and tried it out sitting in the library. I am a migrant to England and I was curious about what the book would capture of places and way of life.
The quirky enthusiasm for swimming and bathing in the Thames and the associated collection of open-water swimming related trivia charting London's history was engaging. If I find myself by the ri ...more

Jul 17, 2016
Diana
rated it
really liked it
Recommends it for:
swimmers, history buffs, people interested in London
Downstream is Caitlin Davies’ homage to Thames’ swimmers past, present and future. Prior to writing the book she believed that swimming in the river was a relatively recent pursuit, but one day, quite by chance she spied an historic poster at the British Library featuring a young swimmer named Agnes Beckwith. Through further research she discovered that Beckwith was a trailblazer, swimming from London Bridge to Greenwich in 1875 at the tender age of 14. Even more surprisingly, Davies found that
...more

Books I Read 2015
January 9, 2016
In October, I attended a talk on the history of swimming in London by Caitlin Davies and Jenny Landreth at a local literary festival, Archway With Words. Davies’ latest social history book, Downstream (Aurum, 2015) is a history and celebration of swimming the Thames. Although I am not a great lover of swimming, I am passionate about celebrating female achievement through history. On this note, I was pleased to discover the remarkable lives of Agnes Beckwith (who i ...more
January 9, 2016
In October, I attended a talk on the history of swimming in London by Caitlin Davies and Jenny Landreth at a local literary festival, Archway With Words. Davies’ latest social history book, Downstream (Aurum, 2015) is a history and celebration of swimming the Thames. Although I am not a great lover of swimming, I am passionate about celebrating female achievement through history. On this note, I was pleased to discover the remarkable lives of Agnes Beckwith (who i ...more
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I'm a writer, teacher and journalist, the author of six novels and six non-fiction books. Many of my early books were inspired by the 12 years I spent in Botswana, where I worked as a teacher, award winning journalist and newspaper editor. My more recent books draw on the stories and history of London. These include The Ghost of Lily Painter, based on the true story of two Edwardian baby farmers,
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