What do you think?
Rate this book
Where We Swim
As Ingrid Horrocks takes swims in rivers, oceans and pools around the world, she considers her relationship with water and with the world around her
- GenresNonfictionMemoirNature
224 pages, Paperback
Published July 1, 2021
5 people are currently reading
209 people want to read
About the author
Ingrid Horrocks
10 books6 followersI am a nonfiction writer, critic and poet from Aotearoa New Zealand. My latest book, Where We Swim, a blend of memoir, travel and nature writing, is published in New Zealand and Australian editions in 2021.
My previous books include the genre-bending Travelling with Augusta: 1835 and 1999, part memoir, part love story, part history of women’s travel. I’m pretty obsessed with what happens to people on the move and I’ve written a book on the history of women wanderers in fiction, poetry and travel books, Women Wanderers and the Writing of Mobility. As part of this, I got to edit a new edition of pioneering feminist Mary Wollstonecraft’s dazzling 1796 travel book. I’ve also published two poetry books, and co-edited a collection of personal essays, Extraordinary Anywhere: Essays on Place for Aotearoa New Zealand.
Awards for my writing include a Michael King Writers Residency and the Macmillan Brown Prize for Writers. I was a Commonwealth Scholar, did a PhD at Princeton University, and am now an Associate Professor in Creative Writing at Massey University, Wellington. I am a member of the NonfictioNOW International Board, currently organising NonfictioNOW2021, to be held in Wellington in December 2021. I am especially interested in building Trans-Tasman literary connections and am a Consultant NZ-Aotearoa Editor to the Sydney Review of Books.
I live in Te Whanganui a Tara, Wellington, near the south coast, with my partner and twin daughters. I’m a keen, if not a very good, swimmer.
My previous books include the genre-bending Travelling with Augusta: 1835 and 1999, part memoir, part love story, part history of women’s travel. I’m pretty obsessed with what happens to people on the move and I’ve written a book on the history of women wanderers in fiction, poetry and travel books, Women Wanderers and the Writing of Mobility. As part of this, I got to edit a new edition of pioneering feminist Mary Wollstonecraft’s dazzling 1796 travel book. I’ve also published two poetry books, and co-edited a collection of personal essays, Extraordinary Anywhere: Essays on Place for Aotearoa New Zealand.
Awards for my writing include a Michael King Writers Residency and the Macmillan Brown Prize for Writers. I was a Commonwealth Scholar, did a PhD at Princeton University, and am now an Associate Professor in Creative Writing at Massey University, Wellington. I am a member of the NonfictioNOW International Board, currently organising NonfictioNOW2021, to be held in Wellington in December 2021. I am especially interested in building Trans-Tasman literary connections and am a Consultant NZ-Aotearoa Editor to the Sydney Review of Books.
I live in Te Whanganui a Tara, Wellington, near the south coast, with my partner and twin daughters. I’m a keen, if not a very good, swimmer.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
June 1, 2021
To start with I was a little disappointed with this book. It was sold as a celebration of swimming, with a great opening sequence of the author nearly being swept away while swimming in a river in Taranaki, but ended up being more of a family memoir. The back cover promised swims in Medellín (Colombia), Phoenix and the Amazon; it turns out all of these were in swimming pools. However, after I realised swimming was more metaphor than reality in this book, I started to enjoy it more for its own merits, as a series of well constructed vignettes in author Ingrid Horrocks' life.
As a former resident of Wellington I loved the descriptions of her Wellington life, and enjoyed these sections of the book the most. I did feel that the travel sections, particularly the UK and US sections, didn't hang together as well with the parts of the book which had the common family thread in them.
The swimming theme works really well for the NZ sections of the book where swimming outdoors is a key part of life, but is too weak to be a coherent link to all of the sections - in the UK I don't think she swam at all, for example.
All the same, the writing is beautiful and I loved hearing the author's thoughts about New Zealand and the state of the world. She reflects on key events - the March 2019 Christchurch massacre, Matariki the whale, Covid, in a way which feels very personal. Here's an example piece, so personal and so enjoyably Wellington:
I took the still vigorously opposed cycleway down the valley to the South Coast. It was pure pleasure to careen down the road, warm air pulsing past, hills rising on either side, right through to the sea road and along to Princess Bay, where we most often swim.
As a former resident of Wellington I loved the descriptions of her Wellington life, and enjoyed these sections of the book the most. I did feel that the travel sections, particularly the UK and US sections, didn't hang together as well with the parts of the book which had the common family thread in them.
The swimming theme works really well for the NZ sections of the book where swimming outdoors is a key part of life, but is too weak to be a coherent link to all of the sections - in the UK I don't think she swam at all, for example.
All the same, the writing is beautiful and I loved hearing the author's thoughts about New Zealand and the state of the world. She reflects on key events - the March 2019 Christchurch massacre, Matariki the whale, Covid, in a way which feels very personal. Here's an example piece, so personal and so enjoyably Wellington:
I took the still vigorously opposed cycleway down the valley to the South Coast. It was pure pleasure to careen down the road, warm air pulsing past, hills rising on either side, right through to the sea road and along to Princess Bay, where we most often swim.
July 27, 2021
Parts of this book are wonderful and it’s amazing that swimmers think so similarly.
The chapter on Arcosanti was surprising - a unusual real place combining architectural vision, swimming and urban complexity.
Life is a mixture of rough and smooth but I struggled with the anxieties throughout the book and began to skim bits on vegetarianism feeling lectured. The writing was luminous when about place and love.
I am also worried about global warming, rising seas and our kids unable to buy a home but the agenda was most effective when it was delivered as a poignant fact - that planes can’t fly in the desert when it’s too hot. “It is a thing” that I did not know either.
I guess it’s not about marketing a slick package and there is such generosity in sharing a life and it’s worries but a beautiful cover with the depth of water would have done the best bits justice.
The chapter on Arcosanti was surprising - a unusual real place combining architectural vision, swimming and urban complexity.
Life is a mixture of rough and smooth but I struggled with the anxieties throughout the book and began to skim bits on vegetarianism feeling lectured. The writing was luminous when about place and love.
I am also worried about global warming, rising seas and our kids unable to buy a home but the agenda was most effective when it was delivered as a poignant fact - that planes can’t fly in the desert when it’s too hot. “It is a thing” that I did not know either.
I guess it’s not about marketing a slick package and there is such generosity in sharing a life and it’s worries but a beautiful cover with the depth of water would have done the best bits justice.
December 12, 2021
Absolutely loved this book. I'm going to try and make it out to Princess Bay today for a swim
December 19, 2021
Loved this. At its best when talking about family connections and the spaces between us and bonds of love that hold us together. Not "just" a book about swimming. Opens with the author on a solitary journey, and intending to swim alone in various places and keep a Waterlog (like the late author of that wonderful book of that name, Roger Deacon). But it becomes so much more. I like the eclectic swimming places - and even the longing for a swim that cannot happen (in Medellin, Colonbia, where someone pooing in the pool at a rented apartment keeps it closed). The "pool" in the Amazon River retreat is simply astounding.
Horrocks also takes us deep into the global climate crisis and how we react while being middle class privileged folk.i was living in one of the areas of Australia burning in the summer of 2019, sending clouds of smoke across the Tasman.
It finishes with the impact of Covid lockdown in New Zealand and how people gently connect with strangers when allowed back in the water.
Horrocks also takes us deep into the global climate crisis and how we react while being middle class privileged folk.i was living in one of the areas of Australia burning in the summer of 2019, sending clouds of smoke across the Tasman.
It finishes with the impact of Covid lockdown in New Zealand and how people gently connect with strangers when allowed back in the water.
February 8, 2022
Thoughtful, tender and sometimes anxious reflections on families and relationships, framed by travel and experiences of swimming in different places on her own and with others.
March 22, 2023
Family memoir, all centered around swimming - at their home in Wellington and on some travels around the world. I especially liked the brief reflections on what early 2020 was like in NZ.
July 28, 2021
Ingrid Horrocks is a nonfiction writer, critic, and poet from Aotearoa New Zealand. In WHERE WE SWIM Horrocks takes swims in rivers, oceans, and pools around the world, and she considers her relationship with water and with the world around her.
I always find it difficult to review nonficiton and memior as its someone’s personal story that they offer to the world. When the publisher sent me this, I thought I would enjoy it for a couple of reasons.
1. The author is a Kiwi, and the book has parts based in New Zealand, which I’ve always been biased about. In a good way.
2. My partner is a civil engineer that specializes in three waters, so I know a little of waterways, water pollution and the impact that water has on our society.
WHERE WE SWIM opened my eyes to much more than that.
It is a lovely piece dedicated to more than just swimming. Horrocks gives a glimpse to key issues affecting the world from the global pandemic to the Christchurch massacre.
At times it felt a little bit like a lecture, but this was an eye-opening piece of nonfiction.
I always find it difficult to review nonficiton and memior as its someone’s personal story that they offer to the world. When the publisher sent me this, I thought I would enjoy it for a couple of reasons.
1. The author is a Kiwi, and the book has parts based in New Zealand, which I’ve always been biased about. In a good way.
2. My partner is a civil engineer that specializes in three waters, so I know a little of waterways, water pollution and the impact that water has on our society.
WHERE WE SWIM opened my eyes to much more than that.
It is a lovely piece dedicated to more than just swimming. Horrocks gives a glimpse to key issues affecting the world from the global pandemic to the Christchurch massacre.
At times it felt a little bit like a lecture, but this was an eye-opening piece of nonfiction.
September 26, 2021
Difficult to categorize, this is basically a collection of essays on the theme of water and swimming in many exotic and ordinary locations around the world. Much more than this as family memoir the author also touches on family relationships, aging, man's relationship with ecology and the natural world, poets and poetry and much more. It has challenged me to get back in the water after wimping out of my daily swims over the winter. I would love to be a cold water swimmer, but my reaction to the cold is too overwhelming - I aim to be back in the water next month!
July 20, 2023
I really wanted to love this book as the cover promised it to be about the experiences of a swimmer in many locations and geographies. Ingrid Horrocks admits early on that she is not really a swimmer but water immersion is used to tie some at times unrelated vignettes of family life in different places.
I found it difficult to really link with some of the locations. I see that reviewers from New Zealand, especially those familiar with Wellington, link with the parts based there. As someone from 'across the ditch' in Australia, who has been to Wellington once (but not swum there), there seemed to be a lot of assumed knowledge about the setting. This created a feeling of being an outsider rather than being invited in.
Horrocks admits herself that she doesn't engage in travel research before she goes somewhere and that shows in her descriptions of when she is in Columbia, the Amazon and Arcostanti in Arizona. It seemed what was written about these places was drawn from what other sources rather than her own explorations to have an informed understanding of where she visited. However, I was not familiar with Arcostanti so found that very interesting and have explored more about it since reading that section.
The section from England is more considered reflective of her time spent there in post graduate studies. Both Columbia and Perth are visited to allow catch up with siblings, and components of family life are lovingly explored.
Water is a metaphor for much of the linking regarding climate change and connections to people and communities. At the end the author buys some goggles, so perhaps she will become a swimmer!
I found it difficult to really link with some of the locations. I see that reviewers from New Zealand, especially those familiar with Wellington, link with the parts based there. As someone from 'across the ditch' in Australia, who has been to Wellington once (but not swum there), there seemed to be a lot of assumed knowledge about the setting. This created a feeling of being an outsider rather than being invited in.
Horrocks admits herself that she doesn't engage in travel research before she goes somewhere and that shows in her descriptions of when she is in Columbia, the Amazon and Arcostanti in Arizona. It seemed what was written about these places was drawn from what other sources rather than her own explorations to have an informed understanding of where she visited. However, I was not familiar with Arcostanti so found that very interesting and have explored more about it since reading that section.
The section from England is more considered reflective of her time spent there in post graduate studies. Both Columbia and Perth are visited to allow catch up with siblings, and components of family life are lovingly explored.
Water is a metaphor for much of the linking regarding climate change and connections to people and communities. At the end the author buys some goggles, so perhaps she will become a swimmer!
January 5, 2022
In this book you get a strong sense of connection to water and land. A book which touches on timely and current events which several NZers and wider world audiences could relate to. Especially love the stories from her overseas adventures, exploring the geography of the Amazon, Columbia, England, Perth and also parts of the USA. Found the story of Arcosanti fascinating. As a geography teacher, I feel like I have added so much more to my kete from reading this book. As a swimmer myself, I also especially loved the explanation of a "dip" in the water. Found the following especially relevant: "im reluctant to actually get in the water. Why do this?....but it has turned out i need this. It feels necessary to keep attempting it. I stand for a long time thigh deep....I feel warm" (pp.194-195).
Another special note is how throughout the book, there is a repeated theme of family and interconnectedness.
Also a great read over the summer break as you head into different waters.
Another special note is how throughout the book, there is a repeated theme of family and interconnectedness.
Also a great read over the summer break as you head into different waters.
May 28, 2025
It's more a memoir than about swimming. There are a few swims in it, but it's more about the author's family life, and not particularly well written. I think it's one that's fine for her friends, acquaintances and the immediate local community but not appropriate for an international reader. It was like reading a chat between friends but like a mundane everyday keeping up appearances chat that only skims the surface of family relationships and their complexities. It wasn't remotely brave. I'm not really sure why she published this, she comes from some kind of literary family. It's easier to get a book published if you know the steps involved I guess.
Gosh, I think it would be super great if the people from these elite little enclaves championed other writers rather than putting too much of their own stuff forward publicly. It did make me feel relieved not to have gotten into academia, there was a whole chapter on an English poet which was some kind of waffley gratuitous reflection.
But then it's an amazing lifestyle. I find reading contemporary authors often problematic. Some seem to want to be authors or part of the bookish society, but you open the books and it's like garble, nothing that needs to be written down. I guess they write to produce content to get published to play the role of 'author' in contemporary society. Playacting.
Gosh, I think it would be super great if the people from these elite little enclaves championed other writers rather than putting too much of their own stuff forward publicly. It did make me feel relieved not to have gotten into academia, there was a whole chapter on an English poet which was some kind of waffley gratuitous reflection.
But then it's an amazing lifestyle. I find reading contemporary authors often problematic. Some seem to want to be authors or part of the bookish society, but you open the books and it's like garble, nothing that needs to be written down. I guess they write to produce content to get published to play the role of 'author' in contemporary society. Playacting.
February 14, 2022
what a concept !! documenting life through time spent in and by water (a ‘waterlog’) - i loved realising that this is exactly what i do, especially as i read most of this on a jetty with the sound of the water lapping beneath me. although, the book left me wanting more critical thought & ideas surrounding the topics which tended to be mentioned rather than fleshed out (horrocks writes specifically about how the genre of her book does this on purpose, but that didn’t stop me wanting more) ~ 6/10
April 9, 2023
should've read the blurb lmao this felt less about swimming and more about travel than i was expecting. i enjoyed parts of it but overall not as engaging as i'd hoped. for a book of essays on swimming i preferred nina's small bodies of water, which had more of the aotearoa focus i wanted in this book. i did like the few brief moments where she reflects on parenthood and creating/becoming part of a new family unit, and fitting that self into the self of her own family unit she grew up with etc
July 23, 2025
not as much about swimming as I thought haha. but still a beautifully written memoir. some of the reflections and the way Ingrid articulates the experience of being both a mother and a daughter felt so tender and close to home for me. the travel diary element of the book was a great way to talk about many different experiences people around the world have with water/swimming.
January 17, 2022
A beautifully written book, just wished for a bit more swimming.
July 30, 2023
Not what I was expecting but so much more
December 6, 2025
Ус гол хийгээд аялал амьдралын тухай ном байсан
August 4, 2022
This book reads like a diary or record of the author's travels, with a focus on where she swam over this time. As such it has some beautiful moments, but is somewhat fragmented and unsatisfying.
March 11, 2023
I bought this book to expand the exploration I am having in my return to ocean swiming. It was different to what I expected.
Beautifully written, its more of the search for water as a haven mostly while travelling. The family's relationship to water is clearly close.
It does read a little like a travelogue at times.
I enjoyed it, but with each observation I was left wanting more, and asking questions.
Beautifully written, its more of the search for water as a haven mostly while travelling. The family's relationship to water is clearly close.
It does read a little like a travelogue at times.
I enjoyed it, but with each observation I was left wanting more, and asking questions.
December 21, 2022
This was nice. Not amazing, but just nice. An oddly comforting read.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews