Wonderful writing Emma. I love how you weave the strands together. I love the imagery you use, we are there with you in the gritty changing rooms and in your warm and cosy house. Naked swimming! What WERE they thinking? Did CM really drown? Such an apt end after her feet of all things wet.
This is absolutely wonderful Emma. My favourite chapter so far I think: incredibly atmospheric and I love the multi-layered viewpoints from past to present to fictional persona. Brilliant.
Wow! I’m so shocked that you all had to swim naked… that’s so twisted in every way. (Swimming naked is of course as we know, a wonderful thing to do in the right context).
The glimpse into the present of the older woman crouching in her kitchen, trying to bring back the memory of how to shape her body into a diving position, was a brilliant and tender moment.
Also what a powerful ending.. the karmic retribution and demise of CM. You couldn’t make it up!
Wonderful chapter! The particular way the Maudie story is inserted here works brilliantly I think. The change of register to the smooth polished fictional narrative of boarding school is a shock and throws into relief the deeper more probing account of school and water and swimming. An account made even more powerful by the added layer of the ageing woman in her kitchen trying to get into the crouch of the starting position and not being able to find it in her body anymore.
My own memory is of standing in a shivering line one behind the other OUTSIDE the dreaded pool in our underwear and being made to blow our noses on a count of three….,did we come out to do this after removing our outer layers? I simply do not recall how we ended up in our underwear… blowing our noses together. Simply heinous.
Brrrr. Very vivid writing, Emma. Bringing back memories of the little outdoor pool I learned to swim in at junior school. I was the last one out one day, trailing behind the others on the wet concrete, slipped and landed slap on my back and head, winded. Literally honking weird sounds because I couldn't breathe. Everyone else was inside by then. No-one witnessed it. I eventually got myself up once my breath returned, went inside, got dressed returned to class. A strange, lonely memory.
Wow. This stopped me in my tracks. The memory of our outdoor school swimming pool, shivery and embarrassed (even though we were at least allowed swimming costumes), the excitement of swimming galas (even if I was in the shallow end with a float), the temptation to keep swimming out in a warm, caressing sea. And that bolt from the blue at th end. My goodness.
Wonderful writing Emma. I love how you weave the strands together. I love the imagery you use, we are there with you in the gritty changing rooms and in your warm and cosy house. Naked swimming! What WERE they thinking? Did CM really drown? Such an apt end after her feet of all things wet.
Thank you, Ruby. Yes, CM drowned rescuing her dog. At least that is what I and others have come to believe.
This is absolutely wonderful Emma. My favourite chapter so far I think: incredibly atmospheric and I love the multi-layered viewpoints from past to present to fictional persona. Brilliant.
Thank you so much, Helen. Lovely to hear - and also helpful.
Thankful that I entered in Block 4 and missed both Scary Matron and naked swimming... 2 ghastly aspects...
I’m also glad for you that you didn’t experience both these aspects, Angie, in a school that was otherwise often creative and well intentioned.
I’ve really enjoyed reading this chapter.
Wow! I’m so shocked that you all had to swim naked… that’s so twisted in every way. (Swimming naked is of course as we know, a wonderful thing to do in the right context).
The glimpse into the present of the older woman crouching in her kitchen, trying to bring back the memory of how to shape her body into a diving position, was a brilliant and tender moment.
Also what a powerful ending.. the karmic retribution and demise of CM. You couldn’t make it up!
Thank you for this, Anne. Yes, naked swimming is so lovely - when it’s your own choice!
Wonderful chapter! The particular way the Maudie story is inserted here works brilliantly I think. The change of register to the smooth polished fictional narrative of boarding school is a shock and throws into relief the deeper more probing account of school and water and swimming. An account made even more powerful by the added layer of the ageing woman in her kitchen trying to get into the crouch of the starting position and not being able to find it in her body anymore.
Thank you, Laila (aka beloved baby sister). You articulate the underlying writerly intention far better than I could.
My own memory is of standing in a shivering line one behind the other OUTSIDE the dreaded pool in our underwear and being made to blow our noses on a count of three….,did we come out to do this after removing our outer layers? I simply do not recall how we ended up in our underwear… blowing our noses together. Simply heinous.
What an extraordinary and awful memory! A (literally) chilling example of the power of adults over children. Thank you, Selina.
Wow, Emma, this is so powerful. I almost feel as if I'm there, with you. Amazing writing.
Thank you so much, Chris.
Brrrr. Very vivid writing, Emma. Bringing back memories of the little outdoor pool I learned to swim in at junior school. I was the last one out one day, trailing behind the others on the wet concrete, slipped and landed slap on my back and head, winded. Literally honking weird sounds because I couldn't breathe. Everyone else was inside by then. No-one witnessed it. I eventually got myself up once my breath returned, went inside, got dressed returned to class. A strange, lonely memory.
Thank you, Wendy. You describe the unpleasantness and lonely quality of your own swimming pool memory so well.
Wow. This stopped me in my tracks. The memory of our outdoor school swimming pool, shivery and embarrassed (even though we were at least allowed swimming costumes), the excitement of swimming galas (even if I was in the shallow end with a float), the temptation to keep swimming out in a warm, caressing sea. And that bolt from the blue at th end. My goodness.
Thank you, Anna. Childhood swimming is such a sensory memory trigger - all that shivering!
Made me shiver! it's the stuff of nightmares. Good Riddance to CM.
Thank you, Sue. So many of us with shivering memories of swimming!