October 2023
Patrick Barkham is the author of The Swimmer, a biography of writer, environmentalist and polymath Roger Deakin. The book is written mainly in Deakin’s own words, interspersed with quotes from the people who knew him best, and is truly compelling, even for readers who haven’t come across him before.
We had the great pleasure of catching up with Patrick in advance of his appearance at the Bridport Literary Festival.
The Bridge: Patrick, when and how did you first become interested in Roger Deakin’s life?
Patrick Barkham: In the summer of 2019, my wife Lisa (a keen outdoor swimmer) booked us a night staying in Roger’s old railway wagon on his former farm as a treat. She knew I was a big fan of his books. Staying there, swimming in his “moat” and walking across his wild meadows was such a magical experience – the place still sang with his spirit – that I suddenly thought I would love to write about his life.
TB: Before settling on the unusual format of your book, you wrote – and then abandoned – 90,000 words of a more conventional biography. Did this decision creep up on you, or come to you in a flash? How did it make you feel?
PB: It crept up on me! It sounds drastic but I had already decided to have his friends as voices quoted directly in the biography. Gradually I realised that Roger wrote about his own life with more panache and real emotion than I could, and so why don’t I try and substitute my words for his? One dark January weekend, I went back to Walnut Tree Farm, his old home, where the current owners kindly let me stay in his shepherd’s hut, and tried to write with Roger, splicing together his letters, diaries, jottings and unpublished journalism. The words flowed and so I made Roger the lead narrator. His enraptured view of the world is slightly undercut by the memories of his friends, in ways that can be funny, moving and occasionally tragic.
TB: The Swimmer is the perfect title for your book; although Deakin’s legacy is so much more than the popularity of wild swimming, it seems he plunged his whole self into life and love as into water, experiencing and feeling everything unreservedly. He was also determined to “resist the anchor”, taking on a range of jobs and living in different places before settling in his beloved Walnut Tree Farm in Suffolk. Has your research into his life affected the way you live your own?
PB: Oooh, good question! Yes it has. Learning about anyone’s life from many perspectives can give us fresh insight into our own. Roger has helped me become braver about little decisions (e.g. do I dare swim in this remote river despite the “danger deep water”/”no swimming” signs? Yes, Roger would!). And his life has given me clarity on some bigger life choices too – for instance, if you are going to live as a great romantic (as he was) then your family life might not be so wonderful.
TB: Deakin’s book Waterlog is about his 1996 swimming journey through the British Isles, and what it taught him about the British people’s relationship with water. What do you think he would have made of the current passion for open-water swimming?
PB: He would raise an arched eyebrow at the commodification of open-water swimming but he would love it and welcome it with open arms. He would say: finally, now, we have thousands of potential river guardians who can speak up against pollution and win the fight for clean rivers.
TB: You never met Deakin, although you know him incredibly well and you’ve said he once came to you in a dream. What would you ask him now, if you could? Is there anything you feel you don’t know about him?
PB: I would love to be able to do this! I’d ask him about his romantic relationships and why he behaved as he did; I’d also ask him about his mum and dad – we only get tiny hints of his true feelings in his writing, and his relationship with his mother holds the key to his subsequent life.
TB: You’ve written widely on natural history and have a particular interest in butterflies. What’s your favourite British butterfly, and why?
PB: My favourite is the Brown Argus because it is the butterfly that lit my passion for these insects when I was eight. It is small and brown but beautifully decorated with orange jewels, and it is friendly – it allows you close-in to admire it when it settles in a meadow.