"A hundred years. Thousands of women. One extraordinary pond.
I have learned about peacocks and terrapins, giant cobras and booming widgeons; I have heard about celebrity spottings and al-fresco lovemaking and digestive biscuits. These things make up the history of the Ladies’ Pond, but they also give us an insight into a hundred years of women’s lives.
From code breakers to cake bakers, I have learned that there is no such thing as a ‘normal woman’; and over the last hundred years the Pond has played host to thousands of remarkable people.
For a century, the Ladies’ Pond on Hampstead Heath has welcomed women from every walk of life: artists and activists, swimmers and sunbathers, friends and free spirits. As Britain’s most famous female open-air swimming spot, a pocket of wildness tucked away in the middle of the city, it has long attracted adventurous swimmers from all over the UK and the wider world.
Brave and Bold celebrates one hundred years of this beloved London landmark through the rhythm of a single swimming year, from frozen Januarys to sun-drenched midsummers; through friendships, feminist activism and the exhilaration of open water.
Created in collaboration with the Kenwood Ladies’ Pond Association and rich with previously unseen archive material and new interviews – from Dolly Alderton and Amy Liptrot to lifelong swimmers of every era – this is far more than the story of one pond. It’s a story of community, women and wild water across a century of social and political change, from suffragettes to soap stars, war to liberation, and shared flasks of tea to acts of quiet rebellion.
Brave and Bold is both a love letter to Hampstead Heath and to every woman who has ever felt most at home bobbing about in open water."
"Ein tief ehrliches Buch über die einzigartige Zeit, in der sich eine Frau entscheiden muss, ob sie Kinder möchte oder nicht Ein Kind in diesen Zeiten? Und falls ja, mit wem? Und dann: wann genau? Ein Buch über die Fragen im Leben, vor denen jede Frau einmal steht – von denen aber noch nie so ermutigend, inspirierend und klug erzählt wurde wie hier.Nell Frizzell ist Ende zwanzig, als sie sich von ihrem langjährigen Freund trennt. Die gemeinsame Lebens- und Familienplanung ist damit auf Null gesetzt. Nur das Schlafzimmer ihrer Oma bietet Nell Raum, ihre Trennungstrauer zu verarbeiten, denn: Fragen rund um Fruchtbarkeit und Kinderwunsch, Familienplanung und Zukunftsvisionen sind für die Oma und ihre Freundinnen Vergangenheit. Sie sind frei, ihre Panic Years sind vorüber. Doch Nell steckt mittendrin ...-"
Join our community for the latest bookish news, reading recommendations, exclusive opening extracts, author events and competitions. It\'s all free. And enter a monthly draw to win a £50 Gift Card. See past winners here
![[German] - Panic Years: Dates, Zweifel und die eine große Frage im Leben Audiobook](https://covers.audiobooks.com/images/covers/large/9788728154656.jpg)
