Swimming Pool

'Swimming Pool' features a selection of texts from across the range of John Berger's writings on the theme of swimming. The texts are accompanied by drawings made by Leon Kossoff over a long period of time observing the activity at his local public pool. The drawings, capturing the activity and noise of the swimming baths, were used back in his studio as the foundation for an impressive series of large paintings on canvas, one of which, the Tate's 'Children's Swimming Pool, Autumn Afternoon' (1971) is featured in the book. To further underline their long friendship a series of letters, exchanged between them in 1995-96, on the subject of drawing is reprinted as an Appendix. The book featured a specially written Introduction by Booker short-listed author (and passionate swimmer) Deborah Levy and an elegiac Postscript by Berger's son, the artist Yves Berger. See more