Downstream

told a friend, “I need some
freedom” and then they went
swimming. It lifted her
sadness. If ever she saw water
she threw herself in.
Wherever she went, she was
always swimming.’
A little way downstream,
on the opposite side of the
Thames, is Wargrave, which
has a regatta that can be
traced back to Victorian
times, although it wasn’t until
the 1920s that swimming