Book description
Haunts of the Black Masseur is a dazzling introduction to the
great swimming heroes: Byron leaping into the surf at Shelley's
beach funeral, Hart Crane, swallow-diving to his death in the Bay of
Mexico, Ulysses, Leander, Weismuller and many more. In lively prose
bursting with anecdote, Charles Sprawson leads us into a watery world
populated by lithe demi-Gods - one that has obsessed humans from the
ancient Greeks and Romans, to Yeats, Virginia Woolf, F. Scott
Fitzgerald and David Hockney.
Original, enticing and dripping with references to literature, film,
art and Olympic history, this cult swimming classic pays sparkling
tribute to water and the cultural meanings we attach to it.
Charles Sprawson is an obsessional swimmer and diver who has swum the
Hellespont.
