I received a free copy via Netgalley in exchange for a honest review.
The author swims daily in the frigid waters of Orkney sometimes naked. A better title might have been swimming with the Orkas since she and her other wild swimmers sometimes felt they were being tagged by the Orkas and were at least a bit apprehensive of their presence. This book is about the psychological & physical healing of wild swimming, a topic I knew little about. It's beautifully written and includes background of the local archeology & mythology. I felt a bit sid for the author & looked her up. It's a book that makes you care for the author & whether all the introspection she went through helped.

I've reviewed this book on my Goodreads page.
Really enjoyed reading this and hope to see it appearing on the Wainwright Prize long or short list in 2018.

I found some of this interesting, but unfortunately there was to much history and etymology that I was not interested in and found boring.
This would be great for people who know and love Orkney.

I loved this book,I enjoyed the way you talked about the sea and the seals,and Orkney,I live near the sea.and see lots of seals daily,I will be looking at the sea More closely from now on,a enjoyable read.

This is not a happy-go-lucky travelogue, it’s a story of reckoning, reconciliation with self and an appreciation with the natural world. With her marriage failing, due to many factors, but mainly different views about religion (his cast in stone, her more relaxed), Whitworth begins swimming in the cold waters of Orkney. And she swims in every season, the bitter winds of winter are no deterrent. What starts out as a way to work off pent-up frustrations becomes an appreciation and reverence for the natural world, above all her lovely and precious seals, who seem at times almost human in their curiosity of this human who has entered their domain. A treatise on marriage, failing, recovering and above all, a declaration of love for one of the wildest places on earth, this book will resound with anyone who’s ever needed a do over