Lido Land

'Tom Fort has a unique knack of finding new ways to reflect Britain back to ourselves and Lido Land may be his best book yet!' Charlie Connelly, author of The Shipping News People are currently flocking back to Britain's lidos in their thousands. But this isn't the first time they've made a splash. From the author of The A303: Highway to the Sun comes a deep dive into the historical and cultural significance of the British lido that will make you fall in love with outdoor swimming. Tom Fort takes us on a fun-packed journey around the UK's lidos past and present, proving that lidos can tell us more about social trends, progress and political ideology than you might think. Along the way he takes us to the only surviving Lido in Wales, built in 1927 to help miners wash off their daily dirt, to the Portobello Pool in Edinburgh where Sean Connery was once a lifeguard, and around the iconic seaside towns of Blackpool and Weston-super-Mare where the loosening of Victorian moral standards could be measured by the shrinking of swimming costumes. Along the way, we meet the beauty queens competing for the Miss New Brighton crown at the Merseyside lido in 1966, a mayor who finished Guildford lido's opening ceremony by stripping off his robes and gold chain and diving headfirst into the water, and we spend time with the colourful characters involved in designing, creating and keeping lidos afloat through the years. His journey shows us, time and time again, the personal significance of the lidos' communal spaces - the unmistakable cold of the water rising above your shoulders, the sounds and smells of poolside sunbathing, the sun-baked tiles underfoot and the warm towel after a freezing dip. Fort, with his characteristic wryness and nostalgia, gathers memories and observations from the swimmers he meets along the way, interspersing these with historical fragments and moments from his own history. He laments the lidos we have lost, celebrates those saved by persistent community organising, and takes a frank look into their future.

Tom Fort was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford. On leaving Oxford he went to work as a reporter at the Slough Observer and the Slough Evening Mail before joining the BBC in 1978 where he worked in the BBC Radio newsroom in London for 22 years. Tom has since carved himself a niche as a successful writer of narrative nonfiction, lifting the lid on various aspects of British culture, tradition and pastimes. His publishing hit travelogue, THE A303: HIGHWAY TO THE SUN became a two-part BBC documentary. He then followed this up by his odyssey to rediscover the spirit of the English southern coast from Essex to Land's End - CHANNEL SHORE - which was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week.