The Memory Pool

Description:


Smell the chlorine, taste the hot chips and feel the
burning concrete underfoot as you read these stories of Australian childhoods
at the pool.

Swimming is a central part of most Australian childhoods. We
idealise beaches and surf, but for many kids the local pool – whether it's an ocean,
tidal or a chlorinated pool – is where they pass summer days. Pools are places
of imagination, daring, belonging, freedom, friendship and romance. For some
they are places of hard-core swimming training.

This delightful, nostalgic anthology brings together
reflections and recollections about the swimming pools of childhood from a
range of Australians of diverse ages and backgrounds, well known and
not-so-famous, including Trent Dalton, Leah Purcell, Shane Gould, Bryan Brown
and Merrick Watts.

Evocative, funny and sometimes bittersweet, 28 people
remember the pools that shaped their childhoods. Everyone who has ever dived
into their local Olympic pool, bush waterhole or saltwater baths will want to
submerge themselves in this beautiful book.

'A joyful, moving, nostalgic and original take at what it means to be Australian. Dive in!' — Robert Drewe

'These immersive stories remind us that the swimming pool is
not just the place we first learn to sink or swim. It's a space of respite and
renewal, playtime and pilgrimage, limerence and liminality, community and
connection. Dive in – go on – I double dare you.' — Sian Prior

'Crisscrossing the nation, spanning generations and histories, these stories celebrate the joy and freedom of being a body in water. Read it while beside your favourite b