Downstream

1980 swim, when he ran out
of tide. ‘They were building
the Thames Barrier at the
time,’ he explains, ‘and I had
to fight to get through the
pillars, the workmen were
cheering and shouting me on
but I couldn’t get through. I
spent six and a half hours
going nowhere. I might have
gone backwards a bit. The
water was really, really black
and sludgy. What I didn’t
know then, what no one told