The scenic artist describes life with her husband, their love for swimming and plans to swim the English channel together, and her difficulties in adjusting to widowhood after his death in a car accident

On the morning of August 6, 1926, Gertrude Ederle stood in her bathing suit on the beach at Cape Gris-Nez, France, and faced the churning waves of the English Channel. Twenty-one miles across the perilous waterway, the English coastline beckoned. Lyrical text, stunning illustrations and fascinating back matter put the reader right alongside Ederle in her bid to be the first woman to swim the Channel—and contextualizes her record-smashing victory as a defining moment in sports history. Time line, bibliography, source notes.

**Winner of the William Hill 2018 Sports Book of the Year Award** A Sunday Times Book of the Year and Telegraph Best Book of 2018 'Extraordinary' Clare Balding The poignant, life-affirming story of a determined boy, a visionary coach, and how the dream of a record-breaking Channel swim became reality Eltham, South London. 1984: the hot fug of the swimming pool and the slow splashing of a boy learning to swim but not yet wanting to take his foot off the bottom. Fast-forward four years. Photographers and family wait on the shingle beach as a boy in a bright orange hat and grease-smeared goggles swims the last few metres from France to England. He has been in the water for twelve agonizing hours, encouraged at each stroke by his coach, John Bullet, who has become a second father. This is the story of a remarkable friendship between a coach and a boy, and a love letter to the intensity and freedom of childhood.

THE PERFECT MILE meet SWIMMING TO ANTARCTICA in this compelling tale of how nineteen-year-old Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim the English Channel.

Swimming across the English Channel is regarded as one of the world's toughest endurance challenges. During a night out with friends, Mark Ransom made a drunken pact with one of them that they would swim the English Channel the following year. At the time he had no idea just what this was going to entail and it proved to be the toughest year of his life. This is a blow by blow account of Mark's journey throughout that year where he had to organise and train for this monumental event. He soon realised that this was not just about the challenge of swimming the English Channel but was also about overcoming many personal challenges and confronting his inner demons along the way. Mark talks openly about his low moments when he wanted to give up altogether and also his high points and the comical situations he found himself in. From the intimate details of a child's beginnings to a man's fears and troubles, Mark's story is so captivating and honest. Mark discloses his innermost thoughts and feelings including those he experienced during the swim itself. Following on from his successful solo swim Mark returned to the Channel a few years later to organise two relay teams to race to France. The final part of the book details the organisation of this challenge and finishes with an account of the race itself. Mark Ransom's book aims to entertain, inform and inspire. This is as close as you can get to experiencing an English Channel Swim without actually doing it!

*Now a Major Film* On the night of 24 August 1875 Matthew Webb, a 27-year-old British Navy captain, launched himself into the English Channel at Dover. Twenty-one hours and 45 minutes later he became the first man to swim the English Channel. In this acclaimed biography, Kathy Watson shows how Captain Webb was instrumental in bringing the sport of swimming into the modern era. It is also a study of the Victorian drive to push back the boundaries of endurance. In THE CROSSING, Watson uses this great British eccentric's extraordinary life as a springboard to explore themes of obsession and failure and the emerging force of the media, and swimming's place in our psyche.

'This book will help so many people' Positive Fertility An Outdoor Swimming Society Book of the Year 2018 After a decade of trying and failing to become a mother, Jessica Hepburn knew it was time to do something different. So she decided to swim twenty-one miles across the English Channel – no easy feat, especially for someone who couldn't swim very well. As the punishing training schedule commenced, Jessica learned you need to put on weight to stave off the cold. This gave her the idea to meet and eat with a collection of inspiring women, and ask them: does motherhood make you happy? From baronesses and professors to award-winners and record-breakers, each of the women had compelling truths to tell about fulfilment and the meaning of motherhood.

In 1927, Mercedes Gleitze became the first British woman to swim the English Channel, transforming her from a humble working-class typist into one of the most iconic sportswomen of her age. Fiercely independent and with no financial backing, Mercedes was at the forefront in the struggle to break through the existing prejudices against women taking part in sport. Over a ten-year period and a large number of pioneering, record-setting swims around the world, she achieved celebrity status, helped make Rolex famous, and was regularly in the spotlight of the worldwide press. While pursuing her dream she led by example, showing that women deserved recognition for their sporting achievements – though she herself was very modest about her success, barely talking about it even to her own children. Here, Mercedes' daughter documents the remarkable story of her early life and subsequent swimming career, using Mercedes' personal records and pictures, recollections from acquaintances and newspaper articles of the time.