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Swimming with Seals Paperback – July 1, 2021

by Victoria Whitworth (Author)
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 109 ratings
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A book about intense physical and personal experience, narrating how Victoria Whitworth began swimming in the cold waters of Orkney as a means of escaping a failing marriage.

This is a memoir of intense physical and personal experience, exploring how swimming with seals, gulls and orcas in the cold waters off Orkney provided Victoria Whitworth with an escape from a series of life crises and helped her to deal with intolerable loss.

It is also a treasure chest of history and myth, local folklore and archaeological clues, giving us tantalising glimpses of Pictish and Viking men and women, those people lost to history, whose long-hidden secrets are sometimes yielded up by the land and sea.

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Previous page
  1. Print length
    304 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Apollo
  4. Publication date
    July 1, 2021
  5. Dimensions
    5.1 x 0.8 x 7.75 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1838937447
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1838937447
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“There's no shortage of books about wild swimming... Perhaps the most intriguing of the lot is Swimming with Seals'” ―Scotland on Sunday

“onderfully evocative... Fascinating... The writing is consistently alert and engaging'” ―Scotsman

“Attentive, astute and beautiful... I adored it'” ―Amy Liptrot, author of The Outrun

“I finished this book wanting to find a cold lido, or jump into a lake, or walk into the cold sea and stay there for as long as I could stand it, and then do it again” ―Guardian

“Each little "dreamlike postcard" in this captivating book takes you deeper into the world novelist Victoria Whitworth experienced as a sea-swimmer in the wild waters of Orkney'” ―Sainsbury's Magazine

“The author's descriptions of the coastline in Orkney and the savannah in Kenya, where she spent some of her childhood, are sharp and original... enjoy wallowing in the richness of her theological, philosophical and literary knowledge'” ―The National

“An eloquent celebration of swimming in the cold waters of Orkney and a fascinating memoir” ―Half Man Half Book

“A tale of redemption through nature and water's powerful ability to heal” ―Outdoor Photography

“Intelligent, wide-reaching memoir... somehow refreshing, and calming, even in its introspection'” ―The Bookseller.

“Absorbing and thrilling” ―Ella Foote, Outdoor Swimming

About the Author

Victoria Whitworth is a historian and bestselling author of Daughter of the Wolf and Swimming with Seals. She lives near Inverness, where she writes full time.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Apollo; Reissue ed. edition (July 1, 2021)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1838937447
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1838937447
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.1 x 0.8 x 7.75 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 109 ratings

About the author

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Victoria Thompson

Victoria Thompson

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Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
109 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Swimming with Seals is a wondrous book. Memoir, ...
Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2017
Verified Purchase
Swimming with Seals is a wondrous book. Memoir, reflection, history of the Orkney region, meditation. Victoria's depictions of her swimming adventures captured my heart. Her descriptions of flora, fauna and flow was hypnotic. Victoria is a masterful, courageous writer and I await her future books. Please read this, gift this and treasure this precious book.
2 people found this helpful
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J. D. Denness
4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful book about the Orkney Island
Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2017
Brilliant writing, Victoria Whitworth is the Queen of the tangent, this book covers so much, death, love, birth, history, religion, legends, nature...the list goes on. These subjects are broken up with short Facebook diary updates about her experiences swimming in the sea. This writing style works well, it ends one subject and allows her to smoothly move on to the next subject. Her writing is very honest at times, how she dealt with her mum's death, issues in her marriage and feelings on becoming a mother, at times thoughts become very dark, hopefully she found writing this book therapeutic.

The book is set in the Orkney Islands, I know nothing about these islands apart from their general location...up north somewhere... after reading this I really want to visit, even going as far as working out how to get there, my kids wont enjoy it so I'll be needing a babysitter...anybody up for that?

The author is obsessed with swimming in the sea, no matter what the time of day...or even year...you'll find her having her daily swim. At times when reading this I did feel worried for her, she constantly goes past what is safe, spending too long out there, swimming on her own when it is too rough, getting caught in the current and hitting rocks. How she hasn't been swept away to sea is amazing.

There is plenty to learn from this book and highly recommend it, my one problem though is there could have been more on the seals.
4 people found this helpful
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atisheh
5.0 out of 5 stars A brisk dip and fascinating read
Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2018
It takes me half an hour to enter the Mediterranean on a summer's day, so I can't imagine stripping to my bathing suit and going swimming in winter in the North Sea. But Swimming with Seals brought me there. It's a book about a woman's turn to extreme physical activity during the collapse of her marriage, but the pleasure of it from me came from the detours -- the moments of archaeological discovery in Orkney, the experience of a place with deep history and tight community, the medieval saints and warriors and poets who come alive in the imagination, the hazy memory of lost family. An erudite book, but engaging to the last page.
One person found this helpful
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Seana Smith
5.0 out of 5 stars I loved this book and intend to read it all over ...
Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2018
I loved this book and intend to read it all over again straight away. As a sea swimmer, I though I had faced some challenges, but swimming in Sydney is easy compared to swimming year round in the Orkneys. I'm inspired to test myself in colder waters. The rich details and descriptions of both swimming, Orkney and its history, plus the writer's own inner life were compelling. Highly recommended.
One person found this helpful
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L. Olley
5.0 out of 5 stars and educational read which I highly recommend.
Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2017
Coping with the trauma of an impending marital breakdown, health issues and a tonnage of grief, our heroin seeks solace immersing herself in the bitterly ice cold sea. Soothing salt spar or something a little darker? Swimming with seals is so much more than a delightful weaving through the mind of an anguished ferry-louper. It is also a captivating, and educational read which I highly recommend.
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Top reviews from other countries

Lorenzo
3.0 out of 5 stars Non-sense Feminist rant in a Beautiful Setting
Reviewed in Italy on August 19, 2020
Verified Purchase
I did like the book overall, but every 2 pages there is at least one paragraph about how men are awful and women are amazing. Victoria is bitter about men throughout the whole book and always finds ways to link stories about the islands to how terrible men are, which I find utterly misandrist. I would not read again.
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Evan May
5.0 out of 5 stars but I have truly never read anything quite like Victoria Whitworth's 'Swimming with Seals'
Reviewed in Canada on September 3, 2017
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A lot of books get called "unique", but I have truly never read anything quite like Victoria Whitworth's 'Swimming with Seals'. It is, as the title suggests, framed by the author's experiences swimming in the North Sea, but this book comprises so much more than that. There is history and poetry and Whitworth's insights into what people are like (both herself, and others) that sometimes feels like a dissection - what is revealed may be difficult to look at, but it is undeniably real. You will come away educated on Anglo-Saxons, ocean life, and the meaning of death, and with a great deal to think about.
One person found this helpful
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Mel T
5.0 out of 5 stars A book to lose yourself in.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 27, 2017
Verified Purchase
I freely admit that I decided to read this book out of a sense of nosiness and curiosity. I live in Orkney and I wanted to see what kind of Orkney this book would portray - would it put my defenses up so I felt I had to protect the Orkney she portrayed and I love so much?
Well I absolutely adored this book, I may have come to it for all the wrong reasons but I left it feeling different about myself.
It is so well written, I loved the strange and eclectic mix of topics, it conjured up some beautiful pictures in my minds eye. In fact when reading it at the end of the day it was descriptions from this book that came into my head as I was drifting off to sleep, I was in the dark, deep water with her, floating with the seals, the sky and the cold!
This book took me by surprise, I was enthralled, couldn't wait to dip back into its pages. It is brave of the author to open up about her deepest feelings and what she feels are her shortcomings - but this also makes the book as powerful as it is to read..
This is a book I will return to again and again.
20 people found this helpful
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Elaine Baker
4.0 out of 5 stars Perfect condition.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 4, 2018
Verified Purchase
Again, nothing to dislike. I have yet to read this book as I have a number to get through before embarking on it.
One person found this helpful
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S. Hunt
5.0 out of 5 stars This is one book that you will not want to end!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 24, 2018
Verified Purchase
Swimming With Seals is a wonderful book with so many layers. It's quite hard to describe this book as it is a cornucopia of marvels big and small. This book is partly about life and how to feel alive even at your lowest ebb. It's about Orkney and the history of the island and its people. It's about wildlife and landscape old and new. Victoria mixes modern Orkney life with myths, legends and historical facts. This book encapsulates so much it is hard to put a label on it in terms of what type of book it is. The journey is muddled and flicks back and forth as if unstructured yet there is an order to the book. I didn't personally want the book to end. It's beautiful and heartbreaking in equal measure.
2 people found this helpful
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