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Swimming With The Viking Of Skye by Richard Waters
The Blurb On The Back:
At the age of 41, Rich Waters received a diagnosis that sent shockwaves through his world: early-onset Parkinson’s disease. But fate had more in store for him; shortly after this revelation, he learned that his daughter was also grappling with a degenerative condition.
Cold water swimming on the Isle of Skye, became his lifeline - a radical wellspring of fulfilment and resilience. Plunging into the frigid depths, Rich found a strong connection with the natural world. The sensation of icy water on his kin mirrored the challenges he faced in his life, and each swim taught a crucial lesson of personal survival.
Guided by Matt Rhodes, known as ‘the viking of Skye’, Rich discovered that the biting cold, the relentless waves and the untamed currents were more than just physical challenges: they were a metaphor for the unpredictability of life itself. In those waters, he learnt to surrender control, to accept the ebb and flow of existence, and to find beauty in the chaos.
Richard Waters is an award-winning travel and sports writer. This very personal book is part memoir, part self-help guidance that looks at how cold water swimming and a stoic attitude helped him to come to terms with two life-changing events. Unfortunately it lacks the self-reflectiveness and raw honesty to succeed as a memoir and lacks the general life advice to work as self-help, which is a shame as the descriptions of nature are excellent.
I picked this up because the cover description says that the author was diagnosed with early onset Parkinson’s Disease at the age of 41 and I wanted to read how he came to terms with that because my mum was diagnosed with Parkinson’s earlier this year and although she is older, I thought it might be helpful.
I did find Waters’s discussion of the physical, mental and emotive impact of Parkinson’s on him to be powerful. I had not appreciated how tiring it must be to have tremors and dyskinesia and how without medication it prevents him from being able to sleep. He does talk a little about the multiple medications that he has to take to control his various symptoms and the mental and emotional impact of the disease (although this is only really in the context of mentioning how he has forgotten to bring them with him on his swims in Skye). In the final section of the book he discusses how he opted to have a deep brain treatment to give him relief from symptoms, having held out for years in the hope of getting on a stem cell trial.
To be fair, this is not a book about Parkinson’s and its symptoms, which is why the disease more of a background character than the main event, which is completely understandable. The problem though is that if you’re to understand why he takes such solace in cold water swimming, you do need to understand the impact of the disease and the fact that he doesn’t go into it is why the memoir element didn’t work so well for me. The best memoirs - in my opinion - are open and honest and self-reflective and Waters avoids the most difficult topic in this book, which is the impact of an affair that he had. It is summarised in a couple of paragraphs and there is no real self-examination of why it happened (in the later section of the book he seems to suggest that Parkinson’s had played a part in it) and I would speculate that this is why there is so little of his ex-wife in the book to give perspective.
There also isn’t a huge amount of his daughter Aggie’s very rare neurological condition, which led to her losing mobility and speech. Again, I understand this as it is not his story to tell, but his daughter’s absence from large parts of the story other than in the context of how her condition impacts him just feels quite icky.
The book works best when Waters discusses how he came to try cold water swimming and met Matt Rhodes, who knows all of Skye’s best cold water swimming spots. Waters has an eye for nature and I was absorbed by his evocative descriptions of the landscape and nature and the effect it has on his body, particularly giving him some relief from his symptoms and offering a sense of clarity. Also good are the sections where he ruminates on ageing and male friendships, particularly men’s reluctance to talk and be emotionally close.
Waters talks about how he finds solace in stoicism and draws some general suggestions on how to approach life and the difficulties it can throw up. I have to confess that I am not fully up on stoicism or how it works and although I think he gives some good advice, there isn’t quite enough of it to really make this useful from a self-help point of view.
The upshot of all this is that I came away from the book not feeling that I knew who Waters was although I had some idea of what made him tick. It just doesn’t quite hang together on its terms so although there are things you can take away it isn’t as satisfying or interesting a book as it could have been.
The Verdict:
Richard Waters is an award-winning travel and sports writer. This very personal book is part memoir, part self-help guidance that looks at how cold water swimming and a stoic attitude helped him to come to terms with two life-changing events. Unfortunately it lacks the self-reflectiveness and raw honesty to succeed as a memoir and lacks the general life advice to work as self-help, which is a shame as the descriptions of nature are excellent.
SWIMMING WITH THE VIKING OF SKYE was released in the United Kingdom on 27 February 2025. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
At the age of 41, Rich Waters received a diagnosis that sent shockwaves through his world: early-onset Parkinson’s disease. But fate had more in store for him; shortly after this revelation, he learned that his daughter was also grappling with a degenerative condition.
Cold water swimming on the Isle of Skye, became his lifeline - a radical wellspring of fulfilment and resilience. Plunging into the frigid depths, Rich found a strong connection with the natural world. The sensation of icy water on his kin mirrored the challenges he faced in his life, and each swim taught a crucial lesson of personal survival.
Guided by Matt Rhodes, known as ‘the viking of Skye’, Rich discovered that the biting cold, the relentless waves and the untamed currents were more than just physical challenges: they were a metaphor for the unpredictability of life itself. In those waters, he learnt to surrender control, to accept the ebb and flow of existence, and to find beauty in the chaos.
Richard Waters is an award-winning travel and sports writer. This very personal book is part memoir, part self-help guidance that looks at how cold water swimming and a stoic attitude helped him to come to terms with two life-changing events. Unfortunately it lacks the self-reflectiveness and raw honesty to succeed as a memoir and lacks the general life advice to work as self-help, which is a shame as the descriptions of nature are excellent.
I picked this up because the cover description says that the author was diagnosed with early onset Parkinson’s Disease at the age of 41 and I wanted to read how he came to terms with that because my mum was diagnosed with Parkinson’s earlier this year and although she is older, I thought it might be helpful.
I did find Waters’s discussion of the physical, mental and emotive impact of Parkinson’s on him to be powerful. I had not appreciated how tiring it must be to have tremors and dyskinesia and how without medication it prevents him from being able to sleep. He does talk a little about the multiple medications that he has to take to control his various symptoms and the mental and emotional impact of the disease (although this is only really in the context of mentioning how he has forgotten to bring them with him on his swims in Skye). In the final section of the book he discusses how he opted to have a deep brain treatment to give him relief from symptoms, having held out for years in the hope of getting on a stem cell trial.
To be fair, this is not a book about Parkinson’s and its symptoms, which is why the disease more of a background character than the main event, which is completely understandable. The problem though is that if you’re to understand why he takes such solace in cold water swimming, you do need to understand the impact of the disease and the fact that he doesn’t go into it is why the memoir element didn’t work so well for me. The best memoirs - in my opinion - are open and honest and self-reflective and Waters avoids the most difficult topic in this book, which is the impact of an affair that he had. It is summarised in a couple of paragraphs and there is no real self-examination of why it happened (in the later section of the book he seems to suggest that Parkinson’s had played a part in it) and I would speculate that this is why there is so little of his ex-wife in the book to give perspective.
There also isn’t a huge amount of his daughter Aggie’s very rare neurological condition, which led to her losing mobility and speech. Again, I understand this as it is not his story to tell, but his daughter’s absence from large parts of the story other than in the context of how her condition impacts him just feels quite icky.
The book works best when Waters discusses how he came to try cold water swimming and met Matt Rhodes, who knows all of Skye’s best cold water swimming spots. Waters has an eye for nature and I was absorbed by his evocative descriptions of the landscape and nature and the effect it has on his body, particularly giving him some relief from his symptoms and offering a sense of clarity. Also good are the sections where he ruminates on ageing and male friendships, particularly men’s reluctance to talk and be emotionally close.
Waters talks about how he finds solace in stoicism and draws some general suggestions on how to approach life and the difficulties it can throw up. I have to confess that I am not fully up on stoicism or how it works and although I think he gives some good advice, there isn’t quite enough of it to really make this useful from a self-help point of view.
The upshot of all this is that I came away from the book not feeling that I knew who Waters was although I had some idea of what made him tick. It just doesn’t quite hang together on its terms so although there are things you can take away it isn’t as satisfying or interesting a book as it could have been.
The Verdict:
Richard Waters is an award-winning travel and sports writer. This very personal book is part memoir, part self-help guidance that looks at how cold water swimming and a stoic attitude helped him to come to terms with two life-changing events. Unfortunately it lacks the self-reflectiveness and raw honesty to succeed as a memoir and lacks the general life advice to work as self-help, which is a shame as the descriptions of nature are excellent.
SWIMMING WITH THE VIKING OF SKYE was released in the United Kingdom on 27 February 2025. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.