- Published: 2 April 2013
- ISBN: 9780099577249
- Imprint: Vintage Classics
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 336
- RRP: $24.99
Haunts of the Black Masseur
The Swimmer as Hero
- Published: 2 April 2013
- ISBN: 9780099577249
- Imprint: Vintage Classics
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 336
- RRP: $24.99
[Sprawson] has an ornate style of prose, apparently smooth, but rippling with wit and candour… Haunts of the Black Masseur was a delight when I read it first time round and 25 years on, it strikes me as even better
Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday
Original and sparkling… A haunting, sensual, slippery read that will make you long for seaweed on your skin and sand between your toes. A must for swimmers
Rebecca Wallersteiner, The Lady
An exhilarating plunge into some of the deepest pools inside our heads... Magnificently obsessive, this social and cultural history of swimming is the best book I read this year
J G Ballard
Magnificent
Observer
Fascinating
Sunday Times
A wholly original idea...a brilliant translation of a singular passion
Alan Ross, Times Literary Supplement
A devoted and luminously romantic history of swimming
Guardian
One wants to put it down - and jump straight into the pool
Independent
A delightful, profound cultural and literary history of swimming, bathing and the social meanings of water from ancient Greece to the modern Olympics
Publisher’s Weekly
All too rarely does a book of striking originality float to the surface; this is one
Kirkus
Inspired by his own obsession with immersion, Charles Sprawson has written a mesmeric account, both sensual and erudite, of individual and cultural preoccupations with water.
London Evening Standard
This is an agreeably obsessive book, full of unusual information
Independent on Sunday
An extraordinary book: I thought I wouldn't care a fig for it but was suddenly and immediately enthralled. Exceptionally entertaining and compelling
Joanna Lumley