Splash! 10,000 Years of Swimming; Allen & Unwin, 2021

From the first recorded dip into what’s now the driest spot on earth to the recreational swimmers in your local pool, humans have been getting wet for 10,000 years. And for most of modern history, swimming has caused a ripple that touches us all.

Splash! dives into Egypt, winds through ancient Greece and Rome, flows mostly underground through the Dark and Middle Ages (at least in Europe), and then re-emerges in the wake of the Renaissance before taking its final lap at the modern Olympic Games. Along the way, it kicks away the idea that swimming is just about speed or great feats of aquatic endurance, revealing how its history spans religion, fashion, architecture, public health, colonialism, segregation, sexism, sexiness, guts, glory and much, much more.

As refreshing as jumping into a pool on a hot summer’s day, Splash! sweeps across the whole of humankind’s swimming history with an irrepressible enthusiasm that will make you crave your next dip.