Taking The Plunge

The thrill of plunging--or dipping a toe--into open water brings joy, confidence, adventure, and friendship. It can wash away stress and sadness, pain and grief. Here water is a great healer, a place to feel gloriously, elementally alive and in touch with yourself, with others, and with nature. Full of life-affirming personal stories and breath-taking images of scenery and swimmers, this bookcelebrates the remarkable wild swimming community. With practical advice on how wild swimming works and how to get started--from what you'll need (a swimsuit and a smile ) to where best to go (rivers, oceans, lochs, lakes . . .)--there's never been a better time to take the plunge.

In a masterful work of cultural history, Charles Sprawson, himself an obsessional swimmer and fluent diver, explores the meaning that different cultures have attached to water, and the search for the springs of classical antiquity. In nineteenth-century England bathing was thought to be an instrument of social and moral reform, while in Germany and America swimming came to signify escape. For the Japanese the swimmer became an expression of samurai pride and nationalism. Sprawson gives is fascinating glimpses of the great swimming heroes: Byron leaping dramatically into the surf at Shelley’s beach funeral; Rupert Brooke swimming naked with Virginia Woolf, the dark water “smelling of mint and mud”; Hart Crane swallow-diving to his death in the Bay of Mexico; Edgar Allan Poe’s lone and mysterious river-swims; Leander, Webb, Weissmuller, and a host of others. Informed by the literature of Swinburne, Goethe, Scott Fitzgerald, and Yukio Mishima; the films of Riefenstahl and Vigo; the Hollywood “swimming musicals” of the 1930s; and delving in and out of Olympic history, Haunts of the Black Masseur is an enthralling assessment of man—body submerged, self-absorbed. It is quite simply the best celebration of swimming ever written, even as it explores aspects of culture in a heretofore unimagined way.

Timothy Radcliffe holds a unique position in the modern Catholic Church. As Master of the Dominican Order in Rome for nine years, he held one of the most senior and influential appointments the Catholic Church has on offer. But he is a member of an Order of Preachers and is thus truly apostolic. The order's motto consists of one word, Veritas (Truth), and it is the vigorous pursuit of intellectual and emotional truth which is the hallmark of his writing. This new book will not disappoint his admirers. Here, Fr Radcliffe argues that Christianity will only thrive today, overcoming the challenges of secularism and religious fundamentalism, if we rediscover the beauty of baptism. It touches the deepest dramas of human life: birth, growing up, falling in love, daring to give oneself to others, searching for meaning, coping with suffering and failure, and eventually death.

Electra's finally taking the plunge. After all, her friend Lucy did it in France, while Claudia's done it loads of times and has bet Electra she won't. She will, though. She's going to go out with the first boy who asks her. But what if he turns out to be a frog and not a prince? She can be VERY shallow. Ages 12+.

What does the sacrament of baptism mean in your child's life - and yours? In Taking the Plunge, parents explore how the Baptismal Covenant helps to shape the experience of raising children. What are you promising when you baptize your child? Why are "please" and "thank you" theological words, not simply polite things to say? Anne Kitch writes with a light touch and includes plenty of real-life stories.

The news about Jesus Christ is so very, very good - but what to do with it? It's not just a nice story to keep in the back of our minds. It's a declaration of love and a proposal.This book is about responding with a big Yes to God, and the remarkable way we've been given to do that - not merely with words, but with our whole bodies - in baptism.Just what are we saying Yes to? What does it look like? What difference does it make? And what are we getting ourselves into? Here's everything you ever wanted to know about baptism without getting wet ... yet!

I'm a millionaire plumber. I went from being a North London street urchin to owning London's biggest independent plumbing firm, which I built myself from scratch. We turn over more than ?20 million a year, and we're growing. The country's best plumbers and heating engineers queue up to work for me. We are the plumbers of choice for London's high society - movie stars and celebrities of all kinds. I count David Cameron, George Osborne and Boris Johnson among my friends. How did that happen?In this frank and absorbing memoir, Charlie Mullins describes his meteoric rise from an impoverished childhood in London, to owner of one of the most renowned and respected businesses in the UK - Pimlico Plumbers. He reveals how he survived his tough upbringing, became a parent himself and had to bid a painful farewell to his first passion - boxing.In this honest and moving account, Charlie explains how he worked his way up from apprentice, through sheer hard graft and determination, to conquer the plumbing world - and met a few interesting characters in the process. Larger than life, and full of humour, this is a valuable insight into how to build a business and the courage required to make it a success.